Senate Votes to Block Trump’s Emergency Powers as Producer Prices Surge

“It’s our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt,” Trump said.

After hearing Trump’s tariff plans, Senate Minority Lead Chuck Schumer said, “it’s even worse than we thought.” Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney noted that while Trump’s tariffs, “fundamentally change the international trading system,” the president has “preserved a number of important elements of our relationship.”

While the 25% tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, and automobiles took effect at midnight Wednesday, Canada notably avoided inclusion in Trump’s new list of countries subject to 10% baseline tariffs. Future tariffs may target other industries like lumber.

National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chairman Buddy Hughes noted that “President Trump recognized the importance of critical construction inputs for housing and chose to continue current exemptions for Canadian and Mexican products, with a specific exemption for lumber from any new tariffs at this time.” 

The vote aimed at blocking Trump’s emergency declaration that had enabled the implementation of a 25% tariff against Canada, but the measure is effectively dead on arrival in the GOP-majority House of Representatives. The Senate vote followed a floor debate featuring the resolution’s lead sponsor, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), who marshaled an unprecedented coalition of business, labor, and policy groups against the emergency powers measure.

“The right way to deal with any issue at the border with Canada is to work with Canada, not wage a trade war against them,” Kaine declared in his closing remarks before the vote. He reminded colleagues that Trump himself had negotiated the USMCA trade agreement, which received 89 votes in the Senate, providing an existing framework for resolving trade disputes through renegotiation.

The mostly symbolic resolution succeeded as several key Republican senators defied intense pressure from President Trump, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

In making his case, Kaine cited an extraordinary breadth of organizations opposing the tariffs, from traditional business groups to labor unions. The AFL-CIO warned the tariffs “will only cause unnecessary economic pain for workers and businesses,” while the United Steel Workers called them “misdirected, unsubstantiated by facts, and harmful to the very workers we represent.”

While the USW has historically supported tariffs against unfair trade practices from overseas competitors, they view these Canada-targeted measures as destructive to an integrated North American steel market that helps both countries compete globally.

In a strongly worded letter to senators before the vote, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) urged support for the resolution, representing more than 3 million unionized construction workers across the U.S. and Canada: “Canada and the U.S. are not competitors, enemies, or low-wage exporting zones; we are trusted allies in our joint pursuit of shared prosperity.”

The Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association (SMACNA), representing more than 3,500 construction firms nationwide, added its voice to the opposition. In a letter supporting the resolution, SMACNA Executive Director Stanley E. Kolbe, Jr. warned that “tariff penalties aimed at Canada for non-trade objectives have already caused harsh and unnecessary economic pain for U.S. workers and harm to our nation’s construction and related metal fabricating, as well as HVAC equipment manufacturing businesses.” 

Kolbe emphasized that with demand for electrical, mechanical and sheet metal supplies far exceeding domestic supply, “establishing record level tariffs on U.S. purchases from Canada is counterproductive at best.” While supportive of “Buy American” provisions, he noted that SMACNA members often must purchase USMCA-compliant Canadian metals and equipment to meet challenging budgetary and project guidelines. 

In floor debate, Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) argued that the resolution wasn’t about trade relationships but rather “about the emergency stemming from fentanyl and illegal immigration.” However, Democratic senators pushed back, highlighting that the emergency powers were being used primarily as a mechanism to raise revenue for tax cuts, not to address broader security concerns.

“If you’re concerned about any issue on the northern border, do you think we will more likely to be able to deal with it if we work hand in hand with Canada, or do you think the path to success is punitive actions against Canada?” Kaine concluded.