The News
US House Republican leaders swatted down the prospect of voting on tariffs as part of their party-line tax plan, instead putting the ball in President-elect Donald Trump’s court.
“The tariff matter will largely be in the executive branch,” Speaker Mike Johnson told Semafor, adding, “I don’t know how much of it would be codified or expected to be codified.”
Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018, but recently he’s pledged to go much bigger, threatening broader tariffs against Canada, Mexico and, most recently, Denmark if it doesn’t heed his interest in acquiring Greenland for the US.
Yet lawmakers who entertained the possibility of tariffs as a revenue-raiser for tax legislation also acknowledged the huge hurdles they’d face; even as taxes and tariffs run on separate tracks. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Congress would “look at how” tariffs might affect a budget reconciliation plan.