U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks has joined U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen to introduce a privileged resolution to terminate President Donald Trump’s executive order allowing him to impose blanket 10% tariffs on all imports.
Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Neal, the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee; and Larsen, the ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, introduced the joint resolution on Tuesday in response to Trump’s “abuse” of emergency authorities to impose sweeping tariffs on US imports.
Trump announced on April 2 that the U.S. will impose a blanket 10% tariff on all countries starting April 5. The president also announced higher reciprocal trade tariffs for countries with which the US has the largest trade deficits. Those tariffs are set to take effect on Wednesday, April 9.
The White House has indicated that the tariffs will remain in place until Trump determines that threats posed by trade deficits and “underlying nonreciprocal treatment” have been satisfied.
The initial announcement sent the stock market into a stumble, with the Dow Jones falling 11% in the five days following Trump’s Rose Garden address. Markets mounted a comeback Tuesday morning as traders responded optimistically to signs of trade negotiations, but news that the US would impose an additional 84% tariff on China saw all gains evaporate by Tuesday afternoon.
The joint resolution, which boasts 23 co-sponsors, would end Trump’s declared national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), preventing him from imposing blanket tariffs on all nations.
Meeks, Neal and Larsen described the tariffs as the “largest and most regressive tax in modern history” and blamed Trump for sending the stock market into its “worst plunge since COVID.”
“These tariffs are nothing more than a sales tax on American families, driving up prices on everything from groceries to cars,” Meeks, Neal and Larsen said in a joint statement.
Meeks represents New York’s 5th Congressional District, which includes southeast Queens neighborhoods such as Jamaica, Far Rockaway, Laurelton, and Springfield Gardens. As a longtime advocate for working families in one of the most diverse districts in the nation, Meeks has consistently opposed policies that raise costs for everyday essentials. His opposition to the blanket tariffs reflects concerns from his Queens constituents, many of whom rely on affordable imported goods and are already grappling with the high cost of living in New York City. Meeks has also emphasized the broader economic impact on local small businesses, which could face increased prices on everything from supplies to inventory if the tariffs remain in place.
They also stated that the tariffs would cause the average American household to pay an additional $5,000 per year for everyday necessities and accused Trump of introducing tariffs to facilitate tax cuts for the wealthy.
The joint privileged resolution must be acted on within 15 days, or it will be brought to a vote on the House floor. The ranking members said they introduced the resolution to take immediate action against Trump’s “economic sabotage.” They added that there is no justification for Trump to use national emergency legislation to declare a trade war.
“Today we’ve introduced a resolution that will force a vote on the floor of the House to terminate the authorities Trump has abused to unilaterally implement these tariffs,” the ranking members said in a joint statement. “There is no national emergency justification to the President’s trade war. We are not at war with the EU or with allies in the Americas and Africa, with Southeast Asia, with Japan or with Israel, which is facing higher tariffs than adversaries like Iran.”
Meeks, Neal and Larsen called on their Republican colleagues to show their constituents whether or not they support the “economic pain” that the Trump Administration is imposing on American families.
Trump recently compared the US to a “sick patient” in need of surgery after the Dow Jones dropped by 1,600 points in the 24 hours after his initial tariff announcement. Trump predicted that the markets and the US would “boom” when asked by a reporter about the stock market drop, stating that the tariffs would bring trillions of dollars worth of investment into the US.
“The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom,” Trump told a reporter last week. “We have an operation, like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing.”
