Five Republican Senators joined Democratic Senators Oct. 28 in voting in favor of Joint Resolution 81, “terminating the national emergency declared to impose duties on articles imported from Brazil.” President Donald Trump had declared a “national emergency” to justify slapping 50% tariffs on imports from Brazil—a nation with which the U.S. has a large trade surplus. It passed 52-48, with Republican Sens. Thom Tillis (North Carolina), Rand Paul (Kentucky), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) voting for it.
Don’t expect a matching House resolution. According to the Washington Post’s report on the resolution’s passage, the House voted to block all legislation that would challenge Trump’s tariffs until March 2026.
Virginia’s Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine (accurately) said that Trump basically asserted that the “national emergency” in the case of Brazil’s tariffs was that the Brazilian government had decided “to prosecute Donald Trump’s friend…. If that’s an emergency, then anything is an emergency, and any president could make up anything and call it an emergency and then use massive powers to impose regulations or evade regulations,” he pointed out.
Republican Senator Tillis had previously voted against a similar measure to terminate the “national emergency” on which Trump based his tariffs against Canada. He said he voted for this one, however, because the “national emergency” in Brazil’s case “appears to be a disagreement with a judicial proceeding…. I just don’t think there’s a rational basis for it. Because if you start allowing that … all of a sudden it could be something not to do with business or trade, invoking a 50% tariff, that creates big uncertainty in the business community.”
More than five Republicans are concerned about Trump’s wild use of tariffs. Idaho’s Republican Sen. Mike Crapo said Trump should be more targeted in his tariffs, even though voted against Resolution 81 because he considered it “counterproductive” to President Trump’s ongoing negotiations with trading partners.”
Vice President J.D. Vance had attempted to head off passage of the resolution in a Oct. 28 lunch with Republican Senators. The Senate is expected to vote later this week on two more such resolutions undoing the “national emergencies” claimed by Trump to impose tariffs on Canada and most of the rest of the world.
