House GOP leaders are trying to reinstate a prohibition on members calling snap votes to repeal President Trump’s tariffs through the end of July, setting up what will be a tricky House vote on Tuesday.
The move comes as House Democrats were preparing to force one such vote this week on repealing Trump’s tariffs on Canada. GOP leaders, facing pushback from tariff-skeptical members, had let a prohibition on such votes expire at the end of January.
The House Rules Committee, which is essentially controlled by the Speaker, on Monday approved language to reinstate the prohibition as part of a procedural rule resolution teeing up unrelated legislation for the week.
The full House will vote on that rule on Tuesday — and it will be a tricky one for GOP leadership. Such rule votes are almost always party-line votes that serve as tests of the GOP’s control of the chamber but have caused GOP leaders regular headaches in the razor-thin majority.
In fact, GOP resistance to the tariff recall vote prohibition was at the heart of a mini-rebellion in the House in September — in which Reps. Don Bacon (Neb.) Jay Obernolte (Calif.), Kevin Kiley (Calif.), Tom McClintock (Calif.) Thomas Massie (Ky.), and Victoria Spartz (Ind.) joined with all Democrats in initially voting against a rule that would have extended that prohibition. Republicans thought they would not have the votes to extend it again, leading GOP leaders to let the prohibition expire at the end of January.
Arcane procedural mechanisms are at the heart of the technicalities.
Trump declared national emergencies as a basis for implementing his broad-based global tariffs, as well as specific tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada. The National Emergencies Act dictates Congress can use joint resolutions to repeal a national emergency, and outlines procedures to expedite that action after a certain number of calendar days.
Multiple times last year, GOP leaders inserted language into procedural rule legislation to not count a “calendar day” for the purposes of the National Emergencies Act until a specific date, blocking members from forcing action to repeal the tariffs.
Monday’s rule reinstates that prohibition until July 31, 2026.
By that time, the Supreme Court will have ruled on a pending case challenging the legality of Trump using the national emergency authority for his tariffs — an outside factor that GOP leaders will likely point to in order to woo holdouts.
Before the Monday Rules Committee meeting, Democrats were preparing to force a vote as soon as Wednesday on a resolution from Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that would terminate Trump’s use of a national emergency to impose punitive measures on Canada.
