On Monday, 22 Democrats in the US Senate presented legislation requiring President Donald Trump’s administration to return any revenues, including interest, from tariffs that the US Supreme Court ruled were unconstitutional within 180 days.
Prioritizing small businesses would be a requirement of the legislation for the Customs and Border Protection department, which is responsible for collecting tariffs at US ports of entry.
When the Supreme Court ruled down Trump’s wide tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) on Friday, it did not issue directions for any refunds; instead, it sent the case to a lower trade court to decide what to do next.
What is the new Bill looking for?
Even if the import duties were “liquidated” or finalized by CBP, the Democrats’ bill would still require CBP to reimburse all IEEPA-based tariffs that Trump illegally levied, along with interest.
The senior Democrats on the Senate’s Finance, Small Business, and Foreign Relations committees, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, were among the 22 Democrats who co-sponsored the bill, along with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
In a statement, Wyden declared, “Senate Democrats will continue to battle to rein in Donald Trump’s price-hiking trade and economic policies.” “Putting money back into the pockets of small businesses and manufacturers as quickly as possible is a key first step in helping those who need it most.”
Regarding whether the Democrats’ plan would be taken into consideration, a representative for Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota declined to comment.
But a decision on consideration would probably be some time off, because the bill was only recently presented and must pass committee examination.
“The White House is going to work that out, and we have to give them the time and space to do it,” Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson told reporters, indicating that the Republican-controlled House would avoid the issue of returning tariff income. “Obviously, there is no script to follow since this is an unprecedented incident,” said Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana.
“I believe the White House has strong reasons, and we will see how things turn out.” At this time, the House is not actually involved in it. When asked about the legislation, the White House did not immediately reply.
On Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the government would abide by the rulings of lower courts regarding refunds. Bessent stated on CNN that “we will watch what they decide, but it can take weeks or months until we hear from them.”
On Tuesday, CBP is scheduled to stop collecting the IEEPA tariffs at 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT). Based on an estimate by economists using the Penn-Wharton Budget Model, Reuters reported on Friday that the Supreme Court’s ruling subjected more than $175 billion in IEEPA tariff receipts to possible refunds.
Using a forecasting model that they developed from the ground up, they estimated that IEEPA-based tariffs were bringing in over $500 million in gross income every day.
