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Comment by NewJazz | Hacker News Reader

I don't think this is quite true. Because these tariffs have been levied under the guise of a national emergency, they technically need to be confirmed by the legislature within X number of days. The House is playing tricks to not hold a vote, and I'm not sure if they need cloture in the senate, but I don't think they need 2/3 to slap the tariffs down.

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That is true. X=150 under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which is the authority under which Trump is establishing the tariffs. After 150 days, someone could file a lawsuit to reverse the tariffs if there has not been any vote.

"None of these trade provisions empowers Mr. Trump to impose tariffs on all imports from all countries based on an arbitrary formula. Section 122 lets a President impose tariffs of up to 15% in response to trade deficits, but Congress must approve them after 150 days. Someone should sue to block his abuse of power."

Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-disturbance... (https://archive.ph/l2272)

Nope. The rider to the “clean cr” took care of that contingency.

https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hres211/BILLS-119hres211r... - see page 4

OK but they still just need a majority in the house to undo that? And that is assuming that silliness isn't smacked down in the courts forcing them to hold a vote anyway.

It’s more that it absolves them from having to hold a vote to continue the “emergency”. I believe the emergency act requires congress to vote to continue the emergency after a certain number of days.

But the republicans know that would be embarrassing to hold a public vote to do so- so they sneak in shit like this, to continue to be cowards since they’re too scared to publicly endorse the cruelty.

OK so my original point stands, only a handful of reps need to defect. They don't need to meet the 2/3 veto threshold.

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