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The House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday aimed at reversing President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada after several Republicans joined Democrats for a rare rebuke of the GOP commander-in-chief.
Democrats successfully got a vote on a measure to reverse Trump’s national emergency at the northern border using a mechanism for forcing votes over the objections of House majority leadership, called a privileged resolution.
Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 implementing an additional 25% tariff on most goods from Canada and Mexico. Energy from Canada was subject to an additional 15% tariff.
At the time, the White House said it was punishment for those countries’ unwillingness to do more to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs into the U.S.
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President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, were objected to in the House of Representatives. (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg, left, Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press via AP, right. )
Opponents of Trump’s tariff strategy have criticized his moves against Canada in particular, arguing it was unjustly harming one of the U.S.’s closest allies and trading partners to the detriment of Americans themselves.
“In the last year, tariffs have cost American families nearly $1,700. And that cost is expected to increase in 2026,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., who is leading the legislation, said during debate on Wednesday.
“And since these tariffs were imposed, U.S. exports to Canada have fallen by more than 21%. When I go home, my constituents aren’t telling me that they have an extra $1,700 to spare. They’re asking me to lower grocery prices, lower the price of healthcare, and make life more affordable.”
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Meeks also said, “Canada is our friend. Canada is our ally. Canadians have fought alongside Americans, whether it was in World War II or the war in Afghanistan, where 165 Canadians gave their lives after our country was attacked. There is no national emergency, there is no national security threat underpinning these threats.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks seen during a roundtable discussion with the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Feb. 12, 2025, in Washington, D.C. ( Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., argued the text of the resolution itself would end a national emergency related to fentanyl.
“The gentleman over here, 5,000 people per year die in his state alone from fentanyl,” Mast said of Meeks. “So if he wants to beg the question of who’s going to pay the price of him trying to end an emergency, that actually, for the first time, has Canada dealing with fentanyl because of the pressure being put on them — who’s going to pay the price? It’s going to be 5,000 more of his state’s residents. That’s who’s going to pay the price.”
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He said the resolution was “not a debate about tariffs” but rather Democrats trying to “ignore that there is a fentanyl crisis.”
The resolution was filed by Democrats months ago but was put on hold by an active measure by House GOP leaders that blocked the House from reversing Trump’s emergency declarations.
The president has used emergency declarations to bypass Congress on the subject of tariffs, a move that has drawn mixed reviews from Capitol Hill.
Rep. Brian Mast leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
But that measure expired last month, and House GOP leaders’ bid to extend it through July 31 crashed and burned on Tuesday night when three Republicans joined Democrats to oppose it.
“It is time for Congress to make its voice heard on tariffs,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., one of the Republicans who voted in opposition to the Trump policy both on Tuesday and Wednesday, told Digital.
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The legislation now heads to the Senate, which has voted in the past to restrict Trump’s tariff authority.
Even if it succeeds there, however, it’s likely to be hit with a veto from the president.
