While Congress waits for President Donald Trump’s unveiling of new tariffs today at the White House, the Senate is in session and the House has already left for the week. President Trump is expected to detail sweeping new levies on goods imported into the United States at a Rose Garden event at 4 P.M. ET. President Trump has said the tariffs are intended to be “reciprocal,” meaning they will be imposed on imports from countries that erect trade barriers on U.S. goods that the White House considers unfair. Details of Trump’s tariff plans were unclear hours before the president’s scheduled afternoon speech with the White House only releasing one document: Tariffs Work — and President Trump’s First Term Proves It.
The Senate floor is back in session today and will consider both confirmation of Executive Calendar #46, Dean Sauer, of Missouri, to be Solicitor General of the United States and confirmation of Executive Calendar #47, Harmeet Dhillon, of California, to be an Assistant Attorney General
House Republican leaders on Tuesday canceled votes for the rest of the week after a band of GOP lawmakers staged a rebellion on the floor, bringing legislative action to a screeching halt. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minnesota) informed lawmakers the next vote in the House would be Monday evening. The announcement came minutes after nine Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing a procedural rule that would have killed a bipartisan effort to allow proxy voting for new parents. The vote also blocked planned votes on GOP priorities to limit the power of federal judges and to require proof of citizenship to vote. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) successfully used an arcane and rarely successful discharge petition procedure to force a vote on Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s (D-Colorado) resolution to allow members who give birth or lawmakers whose spouses give birth to have another member vote for them for 12 weeks. But amid opposition from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) — who has argued that proxy voting is unconstitutional — the leadership-controlled House Rules Committee inserted language into a procedural rule to kill Luna’s effort. That hardball tactic, however, failed Tuesday when nine Republicans voted with Democrats to torpedo the procedural vote, bringing key legislative action on the floor to a halt. Without adopting a rule, the House is unable to debate and vote on big-ticket legislative items.
