Six Republicans joined most Democrats in the House of Representatives on Wednesday and voted to end President Trump’s emergency tariffs on Canada, a rare bipartisan congressional challenge to the president’s agenda.
“For months, Republicans blocked a vote on Trump’s illegal tariffs, choosing procedural games over their responsibility to the people they represent,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, Democrat of New York, who sponsored the resolution, wrote in a statement. “Today, Democrats, joined by several Republicans, were able to force that vote and put Republicans on record. The question was simple: stand with working families and lower costs, or keep prices high out of loyalty to Donald Trump?”
The resolution, which would terminate Trump’s 2025 emergency declaration justifying the tariffs, is unlikely to become law, given that it would need two-thirds support in both houses to override a likely Trump veto.
The House had previously blocked voting on challenges to Trump’s tariffs, but House Speaker Mike Johnson failed to extend the block in a procedural vote on Tuesday, clearing the way for today’s result.
“We cannot and should not outsource our responsibilities,” Rep. Don Bacon, one of the Republicans who ultimately voted against the tariffs, wrote in a post on Facebook earlier Wednesday. “As an old-fashioned conservative, I know tariffs are a tax on American consumers. I know some disagree. But this debate and vote should occur in the House.”
Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Kevin Kiley of California, Jeff Hurd of Colorado, Dan Newhouse of Washington and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania were the Republicans who joined Bacon in voting against the Canadian tariffs, which sit at 35 percent.
“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
Allies of the president have defended the tariffs.
“The tariffs have been a tool that the president has used very effectively to level the playing field and put America back on top, and I think it’s wrong for Congress to step in the middle of that,” Speaker Johnson told Fox Business on Wednesday.
While the tariffs have brought in substantial revenues, they have not caused a major increase in U.S. manufacturing jobs, one of the core goals of the Trump agenda. The sector has continued to shrink instead.
Trump’s tariffs remain unpopular with voters.
Sixty percent of Americans told Pew in a survey released this month that they disapprove of Trump substantially increasing tariffs, as the president has threatened to do against Canada.
The president’s signature levies also remain legally vulnerable, as the Supreme Court is weighing whether Trump had the emergency authority to issue the measures in the first place.
Democrats are planning similar challenges to other Trump tariffs on nations like Mexico, China, and Brazil.
Despite these threats, the president has remained committed to his hardball trade tactics.
He is reportedly mulling whether to pull the U.S. out of the North American free trade pact he negotiated during his first term, and he is currently in a separate spat with Canada over a bridge project connecting Ontario and Michigan.
