WASHINGTON — The White House warned Monday that President Trump would veto a bipartisan bill that would mandate congressional approval of all tariffs should it arrive on his desk.
Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the measure introduced last week by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) “would severely constrain the President’s ability to use authorities long recognized by Congress and upheld by the courts to respond to national emergencies and foreign threats.”
The Trade Review Act also “eliminates leverage over foreign trading partners, inhibits reshoring and supply chain resilience, fosters market uncertainty, and introduces procedural micromanagement,” the OMB Statement of Administration Policy added.
The Grassley-Cantwell bill would require the executive to have any new tariffs agreed to by Congress within 60 days — but it faces an uphill battle for approval even without the president’s warning.
Congress would have to get two-thirds of its members in both chambers voting in favor for the measure to overcome Trump’s veto — a near-impossibility.
Republican Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Todd Young of Indiana, and Susan Collins of Maine have since co-sponsored the Grassley-Cantwell bill.
“The first day of interdiction we signed up seven Republicans,” Cantwell told CBS News’ “Face The Nation” Sunday. “So, usually you don’t get first introduction and get so many people on board, but I think it shows the anxiety that people have.
“I’m sure if they listen to their constituents, consumer challenges are already starting to surface. And certainly the stock market’s impact on retirement income is shaking a lot of people.”
Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have also signed onto the legislation.
In the House, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) announced Monday that he was floating a companion bill, which has already gained Democratic co-sponsors like Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).
“I look forward to working with Sen. Grassley to restore review and powers over tariffs to Congress,” Bacon said in a statement.
House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated Monday he had no intention to bring the Bacon bill up for a vote — forcing the Nebraskan to wait 30 days until he can initiate a discharge petition that would force it on to the floor.
“I think you’ve got to give the president the latitude, the runway to do what it is he was elected to do,” Johnson (R-La.) told reporters on Capitol Hill, “and that is get this economy going [and] get our trade properly balanced with other countries.”
Global markets took a dive for the third straight trading day Monday after Trump, 78, slapped 10% baseline tariffs April 2 on dozens of US trading partners — including some uninhabited islands.
The 47th president had previously declared a national emergency to hit Canada and Mexico with 25% tariffs on all goods not compliant with a trade deal from his first term, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, citing the rise in illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling from the neighboring nations.
Murkowski, McConnell, Collins and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted to end the national emergency against Canada last week.
Another 25% tariff on all foreign-made cars also went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.
Some nations — including Canada, Mexico, the UK and those in the European Union — have been in close discussion with the Trump administration to try to lift the import levies.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered the US a “zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods” deal, following a breakdown in talks on a similar proposal during Trump’s first term.
