Sponsor
Rand Paul
Senator · R-KY
Senator · R-KY
The bill shifts control over tariffs from the President to Congress, increasing democratic oversight and predictability for businesses and taxpayers but reducing the executive branch's speed and flexibility to respond to urgent trade threats and potentially politicizing emergency trade actions.
Taxpayers, small businesses, and import-dependent workers gain that the President cannot unilaterally raise import duties — any new tariffs must be proposed to Congress with a stated rationale and enacted by lawmakers, improving democratic oversight, predictability, and transparency for importers and supply chains.
Taxpayers and small businesses may face slower government responses to urgent foreign trade threats or unfair practices because duties cannot take effect until Congress enacts them, reducing executive agility in national-security-related trade actions.
Small businesses and consumers may experience higher costs and prolonged uncertainty while Congress debates tariff proposals, since requiring legislative approval increases bargaining, delay, and the chance that relief for domestic industries is postponed.
Transportation workers and small businesses could be harmed during crises because requiring congressional approval (except for full embargoes) may politicize emergency trade measures, making it harder to enact targeted import restrictions under divided government or legislative gridlock.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires Congress by joint resolution to approve any presidential import duty imposed after enactment, except for full embargoes.
Official title: Require the approval of Congress for the President to impose duties on the importation of articles into the United States.
Introduced April 3, 2025 by Rand Paul · Last progress April 3, 2025
Requires Congress to approve any presidential action that imposes an import duty after enactment (except for full embargoes). The President must submit a proposal and rationale and obtain a joint resolution passed into law before imposing duties under a long list of trade and emergency statutes. The change narrows long-standing executive authorities to levy tariffs or emergency trade duties by substituting affirmative congressional approval for unilateral presidential action under statutes such as the Tariff Act, the Trade Act of 1974, the Trade Expansion Act, the Trading with the Enemy Act, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, among others.