By Laura Weiss, Punchbowl News
House Democrats are weighing new efforts to target President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazil in the wake of the Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling.
Rep. Richie Neal (D-Mass.), the House Ways and Means Committee’s ranking member, said Democrats are considering using a discharge petition to force a vote on Brazil tariffs.
House Democrats were planning to force a resolution to the floor this week overturning Brazil tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
But the high court’s decision on Friday that IEEPA can’t be used for tariffs scrambled that plan. The ruling was a big win for Democrats, who’d argued the tariffs were illegal.
Yet the ruling also made the existing Brazil tariff resolution pretty much useless. The Trump administration already undid IEEPA tariffs because of the ruling, including an additional 40% tariff on imports from Brazil. The extra tariffs came amid Trump’s opposition to the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump has already replaced the IEEPA levies with global tariffs under Section 122, which can last for up to 150 days without congressional approval. This means Brazil is still subject to tariffs but not at as high a rate. Trump ordered 10% tariffs on many countries around the globe, though he later said on Truth Social that he’ll raise the rate to 15%. However, Trump hasn’t actually ordered that tariff level, so the lower 10% rate is what’s currently in place.
Neal said he’s discussed the next steps with Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Meeks was leading the resolutions to invalidate IEEPA tariffs.
Neal added that after a successful vote on Canada tariffs and the court’s ruling, it’s now time “to start thinking about Brazil discharge petitions.”
There have been a number of successful discharge petitions this Congress, eating away at Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of the House floor. Six House Republicans voted for the resolution opposing Canada tariffs, so other anti-tariff bills could find a pocket of GOP support.
The SCOTUS fallout. Democrats are also pressing the Trump administration to refund the tens of billions of dollars in revenue collected from IEEPA tariffs back to businesses.
Neal said it’s hard to say at the moment if Democrats will use a discharge petition to try to force a vote on that issue.
“There’s going to be enormous pressure for refunds,” the Massachusetts Democrat added. “And then the ensuing argument will include what to do about consumer relief from the refunds.”
Neal also said that he believes Trump can recreate some of his tariff regime in the short term, but that it will be harder to sustain in the long term without IEEPA.
