Congress
Senate Republicans block rebuke of Trump’s tariffs
A Democratic effort to rebuff President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs failed Wednesday, thanks to two absent senators.
Senators voted 49-49 to reject the national emergency Trump used to impose tariffs of between 10 and 50 percent on many of the United States’ largest trading partners. It came on the same day the Commerce Department revealed that the economy shrank in the year’s first quarter, largely due to Trump’s trade policies.
Three Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting the tariffs: Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Paul was a cosponsor of the resolution with Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were missing from the vote, leaving supporters of the resolution short of a majority. Whitehouse was absent because he was returning from the Republic of Korea, where he represented the U.S. at a conference on protecting the ocean from threats like climate change, pollution and overfishing.
McConnell, the former Republican leader, missed several votes Wednesday.
“The Senator has been consistent in opposing tariffs and that a trade war is not in the best interest of American households and businesses,” said David Popp, a spokesperson for McConnell. “He believes that tariffs are a tax increase on everybody.”
The vote was largely symbolic: The House has approved a rule to block a vote on the resolution and Trump has threatened to veto such a measure if it makes it to his desk. Still, the resolution’s failure hands Trump a victory as his administration tries to maintain support for the aggressive tariff platform among increasingly nervous Republicans.
Paul said he felt the vote was more about the debate than the result, because he knew it wasn’t likely to clear Congress.
“Most Republicans are just going along with it, but many of them are quietly still on the other side of this,” Paul said. “They just aren’t willing to say anything yet. But I think if we went through another quarter of negative growth and or another scare in the marketplace, I think there will be more visible voices against the tariffs.”
Yet even lawmakers who defended Trump’s tariffs acknowledged the uncertainty that has come with Trump’s attempts to upend the global trading order, an effort that has tanked consumer sentiment in the U.S. and spooked many businesses and investors.
“I appreciate that many of us in this chamber have heard from constituents concerned about the economic impact of the tariffs,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee that oversees trade policy. “All of us are watching this issue closely and working with the administration to find ways to minimize its impact on Americans. We should also be working with the administration to address a shared objective: more opportunities for Americans in foreign markets and an end to discriminatory actions in foreign markets.”
Lisa Kashinsky and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
Congress
House members to get classified briefing on expiring spy law
Trump administration officials will hold a classified briefing for House members Wednesday on the upcoming spy powers expiration, according to two people granted anonymity to announce the plans ahead of an announcement.
Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to hold a vote on an 18-month reauthorization of the surveillance authorities known as Section 702 next week, ahead of the April 20 expiration, but he’s facing down a potential rebellion from GOP hard-liners rebellion who want changes made to the spy law and to attach an unrelated elections bill.
House GOP leaders are arguing that the national security implications of the reauthorization are more important than ever given President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran and the threats posed by the widening war in the Middle East.
The briefing is set for 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The 18-month extension is likely to come direct to the floor next week without action first in the House Intelligence Committee, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter and a brief interview with panel Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark).
“I don’t think we’ll mark it up,” Crawford said — a decision that could further exacerbate the internal tensions between party leaders and the hard-right lawmakers who oppose a clean extension.
Congress
Democrats deliver latest DHS funding offer to White House
Senate Democrats sent over their latest proposal for immigration enforcement changes at the Department of Homeland Security as a shutdown of the vast department drags into its second month.
The offer, confirmed by a White House official and two other people with knowledge of the matter, is the latest of several the two parties have traded since the funding lapse began Feb. 14. Little progress has been made since toward an agreement that would fund agencies including TSA, FEMA, ICE and the Coast Guard.
Democrats have vowed to block funding until the administration agrees to immigration enforcement changes in the wake of federal agents killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Republicans, meanwhile, have rejected Democrats’ efforts to lop off immigration enforcement agencies and fund the rest of DHS.
The White House is “currently reviewing” the offer, the official said. But a top GOP aide immediately cast doubt of the seriousness of the proposal.
“It took 18 days for them to hit ‘Ctrl C’ and ‘Ctrl V,’” Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X, referring to the copy-and-paste function on a personal computer.
Congress
Capitol agenda: House hard-liner headaches ahead
House Republicans are heading into a chaotic two-week sprint to try and make real legislative headway before a subsequent two-week recess — and prove that their narrow and deeply fractious majority can still get something done.
Hard-liners are already signaling this exercise won’t be easy. Here are the revolts to watch in the next two weeks:
— First, there’s FISA: Republican leaders want to pass a straightforward extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, next week, to give the Senate enough time to reauthorize the key spy authority before the April 20 deadline. The White House supports this path forward.
But conservatives want to add additional privacy guardrails to the existing law that allows the government to collect the data of noncitizens without a warrant.
Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose one Republican on party-line procedural votes without grinding floor operations to a halt. At least two of his members, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Keith Self of Texas, aren’t ruling out opposing a “clean” FISA bill.
“We’ve got several must-pass bills, all of which need amending,” Self told Blue Light News. “And FISA is one of them.”
— Housing challenges: Hard-liners are also posing problems for the GOP’s ability to respond to voter concerns about higher costs of living as the midterms approach. Many are refusing to advance a Senate-passed affordable housing package because it doesn’t contain key policies they fought for on their side of the Capitol, such as a permanent ban on a central bank digital currency.
Now these holdouts want a bicameral conference to negotiate changes and strip out “socialist” provisions secured by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — an unrealistic demand that would serve as a de facto death knell for the entire effort.
“I don’t have anything to add to what’s been discussed already,” House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) told Blue Light News on Monday when asked about the status of talks.
— The “SAVE” revolt: Hanging over all these quagmires are threats from some hard-line Republicans to oppose any Senate-passed bill, for any reason, until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act — the GOP’s partisan elections package that stands little chance of becoming law (more on this below).
“I don’t care what the bill is,” Luna told Blue Light News. “If they can’t do their job, they can’t pass bills.”
She plans to start her blockade Tuesday by voting against a Senate-backed measure on the House floor that would extend the Small Business Innovation Research program.
What else we’re watching:
— “SAVE” debate begins: The Senate is set Tuesday to launch a dayslong debate over the SAVE America Act, which President Donald Trump calls his “No. 1 priority.” But don’t expect a “talking filibuster” that some conservatives hope would force Democrats to relent to a simple majority final passage despite their unified opposition. Instead, Republicans will start with a vote to begin consideration of the House-passed bill that would institute new citizenship and photo ID requirements in order to participate in elections.
— Friends of Ireland on Blue Light News: The speaker will host Trump and Taoiseach Micheál Martin for the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at noon.
— AIPAC on the ballot: Tuesday’s primary elections in Illinois will serve as a critical test of whether the historically powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee still has clout.
Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill, Elena Schneider and Shia Kapos contributed to this report.
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