Toothless trade resolution demonstrates Congress's unwillingness to check Trump
By James Hohmann
July 12 at 8:49 AM
THE BIG IDEA: Jeff Flake just gave up his leverage and got very little in return.
Republicans hold only 51 seats in the Senate. With John McCain out of commission as he battles brain cancer in Arizona, they’re left with no margin for error. This means that any single GOP senator could bring the chamber to a standstill if he or she truly wanted to take a principled stand on a core conviction. This week demonstrates that even the conservatives who are retiring this year lack the intestinal fortitude to do so.
Flake, an Arizona Republican who chose not to seek reelection after butting heads with Trump, announced that he would oppose judicial nominees for circuit court vacancies until he secured a vote on a “substantive” measure to constrain the president’s ability to impose tariffs.
Instead, Flake agreed to drop his holds in exchange for a vote Wednesday on a nonbinding resolution that does not carry the force of law. The “Motion to Instruct” was so innocuous that it passed 88 to 11.
Trump has dubiously invoked Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which allows a president to slap duties on imports if U.S. national security is threatened. The administration is literally claiming, for legal purposes, that our nation’s safety is jeopardized by steel from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. He’s threatening to use this same standard to target foreign-made automobiles. This was not the original intent of the 1962 statute.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/07/12/daily-202-toothless-trade-resolution-demonstrates-congress-s-unwillingness-to-check-trump/5b46a5d81b326b3348adde6a/