8 hours Ago
A bipartisan attempt to rebuke President Donald Trump over his trade policy fell short in the Senate on Wednesday amid two key absences in the chamber. The Senate voted 49-49 to reject the resolution that would have effectively blocked the president’s global tariffs by revoking the emergency order Trump is using to enact them. GOP Sen.
Mitch McConnell, who has before criticized the president’s tariff policy, and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse were set to support the resolution but were not present to vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune moved to kill any effort to bring the resolution up again for a vote.
Even had it been adopted, the resolution was dead on arrival in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this year tucked a provision into a rule to prohibit consideration of the measure until September 30. A number of Republicans – including Sens. Rand Paul, who cosponsored the resolution, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski – had earlier expressed support for the resolution.
But backers of the effort faced a number of absences in the chamber and were unable to pull together the needed votes Wednesday. The Senate moved earlier this month to symbolically condemn Trump’s tariffs on Canada, and House Republicans used the same procedural tactic to ensure that resolution couldn’t be considered in their chamber. The president, for his part, has remained defiant in the face of congressional criticism, previously vowing to veto such a resolution if necessary.
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