House Republicans Buck Mike Johnson in a Fight Over Trump’s Tariffs

A handful of Republicans have tanked Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to protect President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda from congressional disapproval.

Johnson proposed a provision on a rule that would prohibit lawmakers from bringing privileged resolutions of disapproval regarding the Trump administration’s tariffs until July 31. The rule failed to pass in a 217-214 vote.

Three Republicans voted against the rule, bucking the Trump administration’s wishes: Reps. Kevin Kiley, Don Bacon and Thomas Massie.

“No sense in putting something on the floor that’s going to fail,” Kiley said before the vote.

Republican leadership and the Trump administration lobbied lawmakers to get in line Tuesday. The vote, which was originally scheduled for the afternoon, was pushed by seven hours after several Republicans made clear they wouldn’t support it.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with some members Tuesday on the Hill, as GOP leadership worked to gather support for the rule despite the tariff language being included.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, who was also on the fence, ultimately voted “yes” on the rule after conferring with Republican leadership. He said his vote was to protect “vulnerable” members in his party.

“I came down on the fact that it’s more of a political thing that’s happening, and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t put our vulnerable members in a bad situation having to take votes that are hard for them,” Newhouse said.

Bacon told Politico’s Calen Razor that Republican leadership tried to pressure him to flip his vote to no avail.

The failed vote comes days before Democrats are expected to force a vote on a resolution overturning Trump’s emergency tariffs on Canadian goods.

The president cited fentanyl and other illicit drugs entering the U.S. through the northern border when he issued the tariffs, raising them to 35% in July.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, who introduced the resolution in March, said Republicans “know that there’s no emergency in Canada.”

“I would hope that, you know, the rule is defeated today, and that we’ll have a vote on the floor sometime Wednesday or Thursday,” Meeks said Tuesday morning.

Johnson argued that Congress must wait for the Supreme Court to deliver a decision in Trump’s tariffs case before voting on resolutions.

During oral arguments in November, the justices seemed skeptical of the president’s authority to invoke emergency powers and posed questions related to Congress’s constitutional powers to levy taxes. It is unclear when the court will hand down a decision, though it could come as late as June.

Democratic lawmakers have argued that Canada does not fit the criteria for Trump’s use of the National Emergencies Act and International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Republicans in both chambers have been sympathetic to that argument, and a handful of Republican senators have already broken with their party to condemn Trump’s tariffs on Canada.

Johnson’s proposed rule would also prohibit resolutions against Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, as well as executive orders levying 50% tariffs on copper imports and 25% additional tariffs on imports from India. Trump removed the tariffs on India in the terms of a $500 million trade deal with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.