President Trump has collected billions of American dollars in tariffs. Small business owners have sued to overturn these taxes, but while those cases make their way to the Supreme Court, businesses must pay sky high tax bills – or pass them along to their customers. But Congress doesn’t have to wait for the courts – it can act now to end these taxes.

Why Trump’s tariffs are unlawful.

President Trump claims that a statute meant to be used only in times of true emergency, the International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA), gives him unlimited emergency taxing power. It does not. In misusing IEEPA, the president is ignoring all of the procedural and substantive constraints established by law to protect against abuse. 

Of particular concern, the president has invoked “emergency” powers to impose taxes where no emergency exists. Here, in abusing laws designed only to be used in times of true crises, the President has seized the power to the largest peacetime tax increase in modern American history – and has done so unilaterally, pretextually, and without any basis in the law.

Tariffs are taxes – Congress can pass legislation to stop them

Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution grants Congress (and only Congress) the power to “lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises and to regulate commerce with foreign nations.” The President has the power to execute laws passed by Congress, but has no power to make laws – including issuing taxes – on his own. 

Congress can pass legislation, such as S. 1272/H.R. 2665 the Trade Review Act, which would protect Congress’s role in setting tariffs by cancelling any tariff unless Congress passes a law agreeing to the tax within 60 days.  

Congress can prevent the use of federal funds to enforce illegal taxes

Collecting taxes costs money – money that comes from Congress. Each year when Congress passes laws funding the federal government, those bills include provisions prohibiting use of federal money in ways Congress does not approve of. “You can build X kind of building but not Y.” They could do that here by including language in a Continuing Resolution or appropriations omnibus prohibiting the use of any federal funds to enforce or collect these unlawful tariffs – providing relief to consumers and small businesses struggling with higher costs.

What you can do

1. If you own a small business or have small business owners in your life, consider connecting with Integrity Matters – a group of small business owners who are organizing to protect a functioning, stable democracy to protect business investments and free enterprise.
2. Connect with local businesses and make sure your community knows how they are being negatively impacted by these taxes. This toolkit explains step by step how to pitch a story to your local news station about the negative impact of tariffs (it’s easy, we promise!).