WASHINGTON ― Republicans changed the rules of the House on Wednesday to prevent Democrats ― and anyone in their own party ― from being able to force a vote on stopping President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs through Sept. 30.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) slipped language into a procedural vote on an unrelated measure to bar action on legislation aimed at terminating the national emergency that Trump declared to impose his worldwide tariffs.
The rule change barely passed. The final tally was 216 to 215, with three Republicans joining all Democrats in opposing it. They were Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) and Mike Turner (R-Ohio).
The vote was an incredible show of fealty to Trump, whose tariffs have rattled global stock markets and caused profound anxiety even among Republicans, who have traditionally favored free trade policies rather than protectionism. It was also an embarrassing display of lawmakers weakening their own roles.
“I’ve made it very clear, I think the president has executive authority,” Johnson told the Wall Street Journal in response to a question about the rules change.
“It’s an appropriate level of authority to deal with the unfair trade practices — that’s part of the role of the president is to negotiate with other countries,” he said. “Right now, as recently as last night, he told me I think they’re almost 70 countries that are at some stage of negotiation of more fair trade agreements with the United States.”
Trump himself seemed to have second thoughts about destroying the global economy: He abruptly announced Wednesday that he’s scaling back tariffs on all countries, except for China.
But Republicans still moved forward with their rules change aimed at insulating Trump from congressional intervention. The National Emergencies Act, the law the president used to impose his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs, states that if lawmakers introduce a resolution to nullify the emergency, it has to get a vote within 15 days.
The House rules change blocks it by simply stating that the days between Wednesday and Sept. 30 “shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act.”
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Ahead of the vote, Democrats ripped their GOP colleagues for giving up their authority over matters of trade.
“A vote for this rule is a vote for Trump’s tariffs,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). “Anyone who claims to want to retake congressional authority over trade and tariffs must vote against this rule.”
“Republicans are hiding from taking a vote that would put them on the record on tariffs,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said on social media. “They should be standing up for you, not rolling over for Trump.”
The rule change still leaves the door open to the House potentially voting on other bills aimed at reining in Trump’s power on tariffs, such as through a discharge petition, though that would require several Republicans to join with Democrats in what would be a pretty strong rebuke of the president.
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) is the sponsor of a House resolution to terminate Trump’s emergency declaration. Because of the rules change, Meeks and other Democrats can’t force on it. Even if the Senate approves a similar resolution killing Trump’s emergency, House lawmakers couldn’t follow suit unless Johnson wanted to do so.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the lone GOP cosponsor of the Senate version of the House resolution, slammed House Republicans for “the audacity and the arrogance” of blocking a vote.
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“They have passed a rule saying that, you know, not that day is night, but the days don’t exist at all, that we aren’t going to have any calendar days, because miraculously, by rule, we have decreed there are no days,” Paul told HuffPost. “I think that is insulting, but it’s also, you got to wonder whether or not it’s actually lawful for a rule to overturn a law.”
He added, “The stock market lost over $6 trillion in two days last week. I think to people looking at their retirement account, this is more than idle speculation and idle debate. This is about the well-being of their retirement, and it’s about the well-being of the economy.”
Most Senate Republicans are holding off on joining Paul to give Trump more time to negotiate trade deals with individual countries, which they hope would calm financial markets.