Senators introduce bipartisan bill to limit Trump on tariffs

As markets around the world slumped and other countries plotted retaliation in reaction to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democrat Maria Cantwell introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday that would require Congress to approve new tariffs.

Under the bill, the president is required to notify Congress of new tariffs within 48 hours, and Congress must act to approve those tariffs within 60 days.

It’s unclear at this point whether the bill would have the support it needs to pass. It comes less than a day after four Republicans voted with Democrats to pass a resolution that would block Trump's tariffs on Canadian products.

Reaction to the tariffs and their fallout on Capitol Hill was predictably split along party lines, although some Republicans said they were concerned with how the markets reacted.

Cantwell said hers and Grassley’s bill comes at a time when Congress should “reassert itself in our constitutional duties.”

“I rise today to speak about the important role that Congress plays in ensuring our economy remains strong, and very important for the American people to lower costs,” she said on the Senate floor.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called the tariffs one of the "dumbest" decisions Trump has made as president.

"Yesterday, Donald Trump made one of the dumbest decisions he has ever made as president, and that's saying something," Schumer said on the Senate floor.

"Donald Trump has singlehandedly created a financial forest fire," he said.

Schumer called on Speaker Mike Johnson to call the House back into session to take up a Senate-passed resolution that would block tariffs on Canadian goods. Republicans Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul voted with Democrats on Wednesday to pass the bill that Paul co-authored with Democrat Tim Kaine.

House leadership is not expected to take up that resolution and the chamber is not expected to return until next week.

McConnell on Thursday said "trade wars with our partners hurt working people most."

"Make no mistake: goods made in America will be more expensive to manufacture and, ultimately, for consumers to purchase, with higher broad-based tariffs. At a time when Americans are tightening their belts, we would do well to avoid policies that heap on the pain," McConnell wrote Thursday in a post on X.

McConnell also said that America should instead be reinforcing relationships with allies, specifically to protect against "China’s predatory and unfair trade practices."

"The last thing we need is to pick fights with the very friends with whom we should be working with to protect against China’s predatory and unfair trade practices," McConnell wrote.

Cantwell said the proposal she authored with Grassley was modeled after the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and would “reestablish limits on the president’s authority,” specifically in relation to imposing tariffs without Congress’ approval.

“Congress in the War Powers Act decided to reclaim its authority because they thought a president had overreached,” Cantwell said. “Senator Grassley and I are trying to do the same thing today by introducing the Trade Review Act of 2025. Trade wars, which frequently trigger sharp price increases, foreign retaliation and huge shock impacts to our economy could affect the livelihood of workers, supply chain manufacturers and hard-won markets that American exporters have wanted to see continue to be open.”

Cantwell and Grassley serve on the Senate Finance Committee. Grassley, a former chairman of the committee, has long advocated for reestablishing Congress’ role in trade policy.

Asked if Trump had made the right move, Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said, "We'll find out."

"The one thing we do know is is that the president was very clear that he thinks there should be fair trade agreements with our partners, our friends and our allies," Rounds said. "He doesn't believe that it is fair and he wants to see that change. This is is his first step. Let's find out how they respond."

North Dakota GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer said he was comfortable with where his constituents stood on Trump's tariffs.

"My own constituents voted for this," he said. "It's not like Donald Trump is surprising anybody -- he has signaled his strong support for tariffs from the beginning, he's exercised it in the past, and with that he got 66 percent of the vote in North Dakota, so with this promise they trusted him. So, yeah, I'm comfortable with where my constituents are on it."

And while he said was concerned with how markets reacted, Kramer said longer trends will be more telling.

"Well, you know the market is emotional -- it always has been," Kramer said. "I never look at one day of the market and see a trend, so, you know, we'll see, but I'm hopeful that, like I said, that it finds a bottom and then it then starts finding a ceiling much later."

Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Rhode Island called the tariffs "insane" and said the rollout was "another thing that is incoherent, poorly planned, and will have significant consequences."

"They don't know what they are doing and the consequences for our economy, for our costs for families and communities, will be harmful and lasting," Coons said.

Kaine said the tariffs were "another gut punch to the economy."

"President Trump had one of the strongest economies in the world when he was inaugurated on January 21, and look what he's done," he said. "It's just taken him two months, look what he's done."

Kaine said that some Republicans who voted against his resolution on Wednesday told him that he wasn't wrong, but they were going to give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

Asked if he thought they might raise their voices as things play out, he said, "I do, because I think they're going to hear from their constituents louder and louder and louder. "They're going to see that it's not going to work, and when it doesn't work I can't imagine that they are going to stand by as, you know, the president pushes our economy into a recession."

-ABC News' Mariam Khan and Rachel Scott contributed to this report.