Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the president for overstepping his authority on slapping tariffs on aluminum and steel by simply claiming they were a national security interest.

“If we as a country begin claiming that every single item is a national security issue, what that means is that other countries will do the same,” Corker said on the Senate floor.

Corker’s amendment would provide a congressional review process for certain executive branch trade actions taken for national security reasons, such as those taken by Trump with respect to steel and aluminum.

But the amendment ran afoul of the House’s constitutional prerogative to originate revenue bills. Corker sought unanimous consent to swap a separate piece of House legislation to resolve the so-called blue slip problem, but Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Inhofe objected.

Inhofe, who is managing floor debate on the measure while Armed Services Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., is absent, said he did not object to Corker getting his amendment heard but thought it was not appropriate for the defense authorization legislation.