Democrats Plan January Push to Repeal Trump's Tariffs
With the House in their hands, Democrats would start with Canada, but without Republican votes they cannot beat a veto. Ebrard says Mexico will see no change.
Democrats won the House majority in the Nov. 3 midterms and want to use it in January to pull tariff power away from President Donald Trump. A day after the vote, Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said voters are tired of "price-hiking tariffs" at the checkout counter and the gas pump.
Party leaders have signaled the plan: a vote within the new Congress's first 100 hours of work on a bill that returns tariff policy to lawmakers. They would start with the 50% tariff on certain Canadian goods, in place since Aug. 22. No bill has been filed yet, and there is no date for a vote.
The math is the problem. Overriding a presidential veto takes two-thirds of each chamber, and in the Senate it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster, the delaying tactic a minority uses to block a vote. Without Republican votes, a bill could pass the House and die on Trump's desk. He has defended his tariffs as the reason new factories are being built in the United States.
The House has already shown where the margin sits. In February it voted 219-211 to end earlier tariffs on Canada, with six Republicans in favor. That same month the Supreme Court struck down the "reciprocal" tariffs, but the levies on Canada rest on a different legal basis, and that determines what Congress can undo.
What it means for Mexico
For now, nothing. Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Nov. 4 that the election does not touch the tariffs Mexico pays, because that authority "rests largely with the president." The review of the USMCA, the trade pact among the United States, Mexico and Canada, has been open since July. A Democratic Congress does not set the tariffs on Mexican goods, but it can apply pressure through hearings and votes while that negotiation moves forward.
The first signal will be whether the bill reaches the House floor in January and how many Republicans join.
