Sens. Pat Toomey (shown) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) are co-leading the effort in the Senate, while Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.) are expected to introduce the House version, two sources close to the effort told POLITICO. | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images trade Lawmakers prep bipartisan bill to curtail Trump’s tariff authority

A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers is preparing to introduce legislation as soon as next week that would rein in President Donald Trump’s ability to impose tariffs for national security reasons.

The 21-page draft bill aims to take away a tool the Trump administration has wielded to impose sweeping tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum — duties that led key trading partners like Canada, Mexico and the European Union to hit back with retaliatory measures that have hurt U.S. businesses and continue to put a strain on the economy. The administration is currently considering using the same mechanism — a statute known as Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 — to implement steep duties on imports of cars and car parts.


Under Section 232, the president has the ability to make a final determination on whether to levy import restrictions if a Commerce Department analysis determines that foreign imports are undermining U.S. economic interests in a way that poses a threat to national security.

The bill, currently being called the Bicameral Congressional Trade Authority Act, would take that unilateral power away from the executive branch by requiring congressional approval of any tariffs proposed under Section 232 before they could take effect, according to a draft of the legislation obtained by POLITICO.

If passed, the bill would also work retroactively to require a congressional vote of approval on any national security tariffs imposed within the last four years, such as those in place on steel and aluminum imports from most U.S. trading partners.

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“Trade actions with such significant repercussions should not be solely within the authority of the executive,” a one-page summary of the bill reads.

Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) are co-leading the effort in the Senate, while Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Ron Kind (D-Wis.) are expected to introduce the House version, two sources close to the effort told POLITICO. The current target date for releasing the bill is Wednesday, the sources said.

A House aide added that Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) have also signed on as co-leads.

A similar version of the bill was introduced last year, and despite support from a number of powerful business groups and a bipartisan array of lawmakers, congressional leaders showed little interest in picking it up — or crossing the president.

Like its predecessor, the latest bill would face an uphill battle to passage in either chamber, not to mention a likely veto from Trump. But the renewed effort to curtail Trump's tariff powers underscores how the president’s willingness to impose sweeping duties on allies and adversaries alike remains a persistent source of uneasiness on Capitol Hill, among members of both parties.

That unease will only multiply if the president decides to trigger blanket tariffs on imports of cars and car parts — a move that would almost surely lead U.S. farmers and manufacturers to get hit with another wave of retaliatory duties. A Commerce Department report on the auto tariffs investigation is due the middle of next month.

Beyond requiring congressional approval, the bill would also seek to “restore national security intent” to the tariff process by moving the responsibility of investigating the need for duties to the Defense Department, from Commerce. Commerce would, however, retain the responsibility of determining the appropriate action if DoD determined a national security threat exists.

That marks a shift from the current statute, under which the Defense Department is able to provide only nonbinding input on national security tariffs, which Commerce and the White House can choose to ignore.

During the steel and aluminum investigations, for example, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wrote a memo saying the Pentagon did not believe the U.S. was at risk of not being able to get enough steel or aluminum for defense purposes, because the U.S. military's demand for those products is only about 3 percent of U.S. production. The tariffs have been in place since mid-2018.

The bill as currently written would require the U.S. International Trade Commission to spearhead an exclusion process for affected products. It would also mandate that the ITC prepare a report examining the effects of all recent and future tariffs imposed under the national security statute.

The legislative effort is the latest in a series of bills that have sought to alter the amount of authority the president has to impose tariffs. It stands in sharp contrast to legislation Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) introduced this week that would seek to expand the president’s power by allowing him to raise tariffs unilaterally on specific products if he determined foreign countries were employing higher import barriers than the United States.

That bill, the Reciprocal Trade Act, has 18 Republican co-sponsors in the House and was being actively pushed by the White House on Capitol Hill. But top Republicans in both chambers have already made clear the legislation has little to no chance of advancing.