STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are facing pressure Wednesday from
President Donald Trump to oppose a Democratic resolution that would
nullify the presidential emergency on fentanyl he is using to implement
tariffs on Canada.
Just hours after Trump announced his plan for import taxes on a slew of
international trading partners — his so-called “Liberation Day” — the
Senate was expected to vote on a resolution that offers Republicans an
off-ramp to the import taxes on Canada. It is a significant test for
Republican loyalty to Trump's vision of remaking the U.S. economy by
clamping down on free trade. Many economists are warning that the plan
could cause an economic contraction, and GOP senators are already watching
with unease as Trump upends U.S. standing with the rest of the world.
The votes of at least four Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,
Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Rand Paul of
Kentucky — were thought to be lining up in favor of the resolution. If all
Democrats plus the four Republicans vote in favor, it would boost it to
the simple majority needed to pass the Senate. The legislation would still
need to be brought up and passed in the Republican-controlled House.
In a social media post just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, Trump singled out the
four senators, saying they “will hopefully get on the Republican
bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to
not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of
Fentanyl.”
To justify the tariffs, Trump has argued that Canada is not doing enough
to stop illegal drugs from entering the northern border. Customs and
Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl in its northern border
sector during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have
seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to federal data. Meanwhile, at the
southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.
“This is not about fentanyl. It’s about tariffs. It’s about a national
sales tax on American families,” Sen. Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who
initiated the resolution, said at at news conference Wednesday.
Democrats are arguing that Trump is using the tariffs to pay for tax cuts
that would benefit the wealthy, but will make it more expensive to build
homes, disrupt industries and raise prices on imported grocery products.
Kaine pointed to aluminum imported from Canada that is used by businesses
ranging from pie makers to shipbuilders.
“Today, Donald Trump takes a sledgehammer to the American economy and even
to the American dream,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a
floor speech.
He added, “The Senate has a chance to slow this trade war down today if
Republicans join us.”
On the heels of election results in Wisconsin and Florida that delivered
early warning signs to Republicans about the popularity of Trump's agenda,
Schumer said that Trump is particularly vulnerable when it comes to the
economy.
“Once the American people say, ‘I don’t want to embrace somebody, I don’t
want to vote for somebody, I don’t want to support somebody who embraces
Trump’s policies,’ things are going to change," he told reporters. “Public
sentiment is everything."
For their part, Republican leaders were trying to hold their members in
line against the tariff resolution by emphasizing that Trump was acting to
address fentanyl trafficking and border security.
Majority Whip Sen. John Barrasso argued in a floor speech that former
President Joe Biden had “also thrown open the northern border. The
criminal cartels noticed and they took advantage.”
"There are unique threats to the United States at our northern border,"
the Wyoming senator said. “President Trump is taking the bold, decisive,
swift action that is necessary to secure that border as well.”
Republicans lined up on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to underscore
the need to act to halt fentanyl trafficking, including at the northern
border. However, a key group of Senate Republicans was also indicating
opposition to tariffs on Canada.
In a floor speech Wednesday, Collins said she would support the resolution
and noted, “The fact is the vast majority of fentanyl in America comes
from the southern border.”
Collins noted that Canada is already beefing up border security to address
drug trafficking and said she was concerned what tariffs would do to
businesses and households in Maine. She pointed to a paper mill in her
home state that pumps paper pulp from Canada.
“A tariff placed on this pulp would jeopardize the financial wellbeing of
this vital paper mill, which employs more than 500 people in rural,
northern Maine. There is not another big employer in that area that can
possibly compensate for the loss of those 510 direct jobs,” Collins said.
Paul, a Kentucky Republican who often supports libertarian economic views,
also spoke in favor of the resolution, arguing that the president should
not be given unilateral authority to impose taxes on imports.
“Every dollar collected in tariff revenue comes straight out of the
pockets of American consumers,” he said. “Conservatives used to understand
that tariffs are taxes on the American people. Conservatives used to be
uniformly opposed to raising taxes because we wanted the private
marketplace, the private individuals to keep more of their income.”
While a younger group of Republicans closely aligned with Trump have
spoken out in favor of the president's plans to aggressively reshape the
economy, a sizeable portion of the Republican Conference noted concerns
about the tariff impacts on farmers and other industries. Still, most
wanted to give Trump room to negotiate better trade deals.
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said that he has been in constant talks
with both Canadian officials and businesses in his state like Bobcat,
which does a significant amount of its sales in Canada. But he didn't plan
on supporting the resolution. Instead, he hoped that Trump's Wednesday
announcement would just be a starting point for negotiations for the
reciprocal dropping of tariffs.
The Republican added: “I’m not overly concerned about it, but obviously it
occupies a lot of attention and time and a lot of political anxiety."
But Democrats had found a way to press into that anxiety and test their
GOP colleagues' support for Trump's vision for vast changes in how the
U.S. interacts with longtime allies.
“Like President Trump, I think it’s right to say, ‘America first.’ But I
don’t want America alone,” said Kaine. “I don’t want an America pushing
aside its long standing allies who have stood with us.”
