Senate Democrats are putting Republican support for some of Donald Trump’s tariff plans to the test by forcing a vote to nullify the emergency declaration that underpins the levies on Canada.
Republicans have watched with some unease as the president’s attempts to remake global trade have sent the stock market downward, but they have so far stood by Trump’s on-again-off-again threats to levy taxes on imported goods.
Even as the resolution from Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia offered them a potential off-ramp to the tariffs levied on Canadian imports, Republican leaders were trying to keep senators in line by focusing on fentanyl that comes into the U.S. over its northern border.
Kaine’s resolution — expected to go to a vote as early as Tuesday — challenges Trump’s use of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, also called IEEPA, to declare an emergency at the northern border in order to hit Canada with tariffs. The IEEPA includes a provision allowing any senator to force a vote to block emergency powers.
Tim Kaine wants to pressure Trump, Republicans to reconsider Canadian tariffs
Kaine told CBC News on Tuesday that in Trump’s first term, lukewarm support from Congress on more than one occasion forced him to reconsider certain White House plans. Kaine said he hoped the tariffs vote “could have an effect on curbing the president’s behaviour.”
“If we get a good solid bipartisan vote in the Senate, that’s going to be a powerful message to Donald Trump and his economic advisers that you are playing with fire — don’t raise taxes on Americans on their groceries and building supplies at a time when the economy is softening,” he said.
Kaine said he has heard from constituents who are “hopping mad” about the potential for tariffs, and that the measure is also intended to demonstrate that the U.S.-Canada relationship is highly valued.
To be successful in the Senate, Kaine’s measure would need the support of all 46 of his Democratic colleagues in the chamber, as well as four Republicans.
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul is a co-sponsor of Kaine’s measure.
“I live in a state where we have three of the big automobile manufacturers. They’re all opposed to the tariffs, and I think that it would hurt them,” Paul told a U.S. radio show on Sunday. “The bourbon industry in Kentucky, they don’t like the tariffs.”
According to Politico.com, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson moved earlier this month to block the ability of tariff critics to force a floor vote in that chamber.
That means it is highly likely that Trump won’t be prevented legislatively from pursuing his tariff agenda with Canada, but if Kaine’s resolution succeeds, it would still be a symbolic rebuke to the president.
Several Republican senators represent states that share a land or water border with Canada, a list that includes Susan Collins of Maine, Pennsylvania’s Dave McCormick, Steve Daines of Montana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and both senators from Idaho and Ohio.
Kaine, in an op-ed in the Washington Post late last week, accused Trump of “using [a] fake emergency as a smoke screen to collect tariff revenue,” citing public polling that the measure is unpopular with Americans, as well as a Yale University study indicating they could cost the average American family up to $2,000 more each year.
A small fraction of the fentanyl that comes into the U.S. enters from Canada, and more drugs flow in the opposite direction. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to federal data. Meanwhile, at the southern U.S.-Mexico border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.
Why some of Trump’s tariff justifications don’t stand up
Most Republicans in the Senate have signalled they aren’t exactly fans of tariffs, but argued that Trump is using them as a negotiating tool.
“I am supportive of using tariffs in a way to accomplish a specific objective, in this case ending drug traffic,” Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota told reporters last month. He said this week that his “advice remains the same.”
While Trump’s close allies in the Senate were standing steadfastly by the idea of remaking the U.S. economy through tariffs, others have begun openly voicing their dissatisfaction with trade wars that could disrupt industries and raise prices on autos, groceries, housing and other goods.
“I’m keeping a close eye on all these tariffs because oftentimes the first folks that are hurt in a trade war are your farmers and ranchers,” said Daines.
