Democrats are looking to capitalize on a political opportunity afforded by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff proposals and his downplaying the negative impact on commodity markets, lawmakers told Agri-Pulse this week.
“I think this is the beginning of the unraveling,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told Agri-Pulse on Tuesday.
The centerpiece of their effort is a Senate vote on a Democratic resolution challenging the economic emergency that underpins new tariffs on imports from Canada. That vote could come as soon as Wednesday.
The bill won’t be able to overturn the tariffs. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., used a rules procedure to block House action on the resolution. But the resolution puts Senate Republicans in a difficult position. Senators in farm states will have to choose between backing Trump’s trade agenda and publicly supporting tariffs that are set to drive farm input prices higher and could invite further retaliation from U.S. trade partners.
“It’s a very sound opportunity,” the House Ways and Means Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, told Agri-Pulse. “It calls attention to the haphazard manner in which these tariffs were developed.”
If every Senate Democrat votes to back the resolution, at least four Republicans would need to join them for the resolution to pass. GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is cosponsoring the resolution, and Maine Sen. Susan Collins has indicated she will vote with Democrats.
In comments to Agri-Pulse Tuesday, Collins called the duties “disastrous for the state of Maine.”
“Much of our potatoes, lobster and blueberries are processed in Canada then come back over,” Collins said, arguing the 25% duties – reduced to 10% on energy exports and Canadian potash – would cause price hikes for her constituents.
In a press conference earlier in the day, Sens. Warner, Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., flanked by a brewer and a distiller that rely on imports from Canada for their business, told reporters that many Republicans privately share Collins’ concerns.
The tariff vote is also taking place against a backdrop of a plummeting stock market, falling consumer sentiment and mounting recession fears.
“Who wants a stock market that's declining? Who wants the Atlanta Fed predicting we're going to go into a recession?” said Kaine, who introduced the resolution. “People are tired of the chaos.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. (Agri-Pulse photo)Kaine added that GOP colleagues are embarrassed by Trump’s rhetoric around making Canada the 51st state, and don’t understand the need for steep duties on a key U.S. ally.
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A Republican House member told Agri-Pulse Tuesday that he had raised tariff concerns with Johnson and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, but said he had avoided publicly criticizing duties so far. Explaining the decision, he said, “You criticize in private, you praise in public.”
Other Republican senators are holding off on saying how they’ll vote. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, backed efforts to increase congressional oversight over trade policy in Trump’s first term and has raised concerns around impacts the tariffs on Canada could have on fertilizer prices.
Grassley told reporters Tuesday that lawmakers "delegated too much authority" to the president and that he was open to legislation that would "bring that authority back to Congress, either fully or partially."
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican on the Senate Finance Committee who faces a possible primary race in 2026, wouldn’t say which way he would vote on the resolution when Agri-Pulse asked him on Tuesday. The Finance Committee oversees trade policy.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune will urge Republicans to vote against the measure on the Senate floor, according to remarks shared with the Daily Caller.
Even public hesitancy by Republicans represents an increased willingness from GOP lawmakers to challenge the president, Warner said.
“The first few weeks, Republicans voted in lockstep” with the administration, Warner said. Last week, a group of Republicans joined Democrats to oppose the administration’s funding cut to the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. “That was 10 Republicans putting their names out publicly,” Warner said.
If Trump presses ahead with plans to unveil sweeping new duties on imports today, Warner added, GOP opposition could swell.
“We expected of flood. It's been a tsunami,” Warner told Agri-Pulse. “But like with a tsunami, once it starts to roll back out, it rolls back out pretty quickly.”
Republican lawmakers have already been pressing administration officials to exempt critical farm inputs from new duties – set to be announced at a Rose Garden press conference later today.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., and Senate Ag Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., said they have been pushing the administration to exempt potash from the new duties. Thompson said his appeals have also focused on peat moss, which is used in horticulture.
A coalition of ag industry groups also wrote to senior administration officials Tuesday to urge the president to avoid imposing tariffs that would leave them vulnerable to retaliation.
“The administration’s agricultural trade agenda must focus on maintaining existing markets, avoiding punitive tariffs that put farmers, ranchers and growers on the front line of retaliation, and an aggressive strategy that expands market access for U.S. agricultural products,” the groups wrote. Signatories included the American Farm Bureau Federation and organizations representing feed, soybean, produce and corn industries, among others.
“Our Republican colleagues behind closed doors are telling us, ‘Keep going, keep going,’” Klobuchar said during Tuesday’s press conference, because tariffs are “decimating” industries in their states.
“So, this is a moment they can stand up,” Klobuchar stressed.
Rebekah Alvey and Lydia Johnson contributed to this report.
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