Congress Has Always Held the Power over Tariffs

National Review Online

Friday, February 13, 2026

 

A half dozen Republicans joined with Democrats this week to reject President Trump’s unilateral tariffs against Canada. It’s a welcome move, even though the resolution still has to pass the Senate and, even if it does, there won’t be anywhere near enough support to overturn a certain veto.

 

Since taking office the second time, Trump has pursued a constantly changing, often arbitrary policy of imposing tariffs on virtually every country, at varying rates, often without reason. The tariffs are not just bad economic policy; they are also likely illegal, and sometime between now and late June, the Supreme Court is set to rule on whether he exceeded his authority in imposing them.

 

Republicans who oppose the tariffs, especially those in districts with a lot of export-heavy businesses that have been most directly harmed, have been hoping that the Supreme Court does the job of striking them down so their voters can be freed from the punishing effects of the tariffs while they still remain on Trump’s good side.

 

But that isn’t how the system is supposed to work. There was a time when members of Congress recognized that the branch had an important coequal role in our constitutional system. There have been times in the past in which congressional leadership considered institutional prerogatives as even more important than partisan ones, and legislators would push back even against executives of their own party trying to push the envelope of their power.

 

In recent decades, however, Congress has been much more reluctant to assert itself. Presidents have been more willing to claim overweening executive authority, and the legislative branch has become more likely to remain passive or even support executive action that frees them up from having to take responsibility for policymaking. The logical and absurd endpoint of this has been Congress doing nothing while the executive claimed the most central of all its powers — the power to tax our citizens.

 

We wish we could say that the current vote was a sign of Congress rediscovering its appreciation for the separation of powers. Instead, Democrats acted based on partisan incentives, and a small number of Republicans united with them to force a vote on the tariff issue; more such votes are expected to come as Democrats try to force Republicans in vulnerable seats to choose between loyalty to Trump and the interests of their constituents during the election year.

 

Still, it is as good a time as any for a reminder that Republicans in Congress do not have to wait around for the Supreme Court to inadvertently vindicate their policy preference through an act of statutory interpretation. Ultimately, if members of Congress do not like the president’s one-man trade war, they can put an end to it whenever they want.