Senators Push House Speaker to Hold Vote on IEEPA Emergencies
The bipartisan group of senators that demanded votes to terminate the emergencies that underlie reciprocal tariffs, Brazil tariffs and Canada tariffs wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to schedule the same votes in his chamber.
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Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore, wrote that the Senate voted to end all these emergencies, via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act's provisions that allow members to demand votes to end emergencies: "Under the National Emergencies Act, when one chamber passes such a resolution, the other chamber shall refer that resolution to committee, that committee shall report it out within 15 calendar days, the resolution shall become the pending business, and the chamber shall vote on it within three calendar days."
They noted that the House prevented these votes. "Four times now, the House has voted on party lines for a rule that claims, for the purposes of reading the NEA, one calendar day can stretch all the way from March of one year through January of the next -- all to block debate and votes on these emergency declarations and the tariffs imposed pursuant to them."
They complained that the administration has used these emergencies "to justify significant and broad-based tariff hikes on the American people without any say from Congress."
"The American people deserve to see where their Representatives stand," they concluded.