WASHINGTON — The Senate shot down a resolution seeking to overturn the global tariffs implemented by the White House earlier this month, dealing a blow to Democratic efforts to thwart President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The Senate on Wednesday voted 49-49 on a proposal to terminate the national emergency used to justify the 10% baseline tariff on all imports as well as some higher tariffs on other select countries, falling short of the majority needed to pass. The measure failed as Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were absent.
If the pair were present, the resolution would’ve passed.
Senate Republicans then moved to table the resolution, which would squash the effort altogether. That passed in 50-49 with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie.
“We forced a vote to stop the damage Trump’s tariffs are doing to American families,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, said in a post on X. “But Senate Republicans just voted to keep the tariffs in place that are hurting families. They are Trump’s enablers, his collaborators, his co-conspirators.”
The resolution was introduced shortly after the tariffs were implemented on so-called “Liberation Day,” on which Trump announced the taxes would remain in place until countries made individual trade deals to lower trade costs for the United States.
The tariffs have ignited widespread economic concerns, especially among those who live in farming and agriculture-heavy states.
The Trump administration sought to ease those concerns ahead of the vote, with both U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer and Vance attending a closed-door Senate Republican lunch on Tuesday.
However, those appeals did little to relieve a handful of GOP senators who ended up voting for the resolution, including Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine.
“It is not perfect, I think it’s too broad,” Collins told reporters ahead of the vote. “But it sends the message that I want to send: that we really need to be far more discriminatory in imposing these tariffs.”
Utah Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis voted against the measure.
Even if the resolution had passed, the GOP-controlled House was not likely to consider the resolution. Furthermore, Trump has vowed to veto any legislation that reaches his desk seeking to limit his tariff authority.
The Senate passed a similar resolution in the beginning of April to rescind an emergency declaration Trump issued in February, which determined the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration numbers constituted a national emergency. That declaration was used as the justification for 10% tariffs later levied on Canadian imports.
Although that resolution passed the Senate — with the same four Republicans voting in favor — it has yet to be considered by the House.