The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on a Democratic resolution aimed at blocking President Donald Trump from using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada, Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Friday.

“Fortunately, the National Emergencies Act of 1976 included a provision allowing any senator to force a vote to block emergency powers being abused by the president. I will be pulling that procedural lever to challenge Trump’s Canada tariffs early next week,” Kaine said in an op-ed published Friday in the Washington Post.

Trump declared on Feb. 1 that the threat posed by fentanyl and undocumented migration from Canada, Mexico and China constituted a national emergency that justified the use of tariffs to pressure the three countries to take action to respond. His use of the emergency powers law to impose tariffs is unprecedented, although that legislation gives the president broad authority to impose sanctions in times of emergency.

Since then, Trump has imposed a 20 percent tariff on imports from China and a 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico. He subsequently paused the tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods that comply with the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement’s rules of origin.

However, those tariffs on Canada and Mexico snap back into place next week unless Trump reaches a deal with the countries to further suspend them.

“This Administration is igniting a reckless trade war and regular Americans are paying the price,” Klobuchar said in a joint statement with Kaine. “Costs for everyone will go up and our farmers and businesses will suffer. Canada is Minnesota’s top trading partner and is a key U.S. ally. We must reverse these damaging tariffs before it’s too late.”

In a sign of potentially better relations with Canada, Trump spoke with the country’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, for the first time Friday.

“It was an extremely productive call,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada.”

Trump continued in the same vein at a White House event on Friday. “We had a very good talk, the prime minister and myself and I think things are going to work out very well with Canada and the United States,” Trump said.

But he also told reporters he “absolutely” would strike back if Canada retaliates against any of the tariffs that he imposes next week.

Next week’s Senate vote would only end the national emergency with regard to Canada, a staunch U.S. ally that Trump has repeatedly denigrated by calling it the 51st state. It would put Republicans in the potentially awkward position of voting against Trump over his use of tariffs.

The vote also would take place one day before Trump is set to announce a new set of “reciprocal” tariffs on potentially all trading partners, including Canada, Mexico and China, as well as others in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

Earlier this month, House Republicans slipped language into a House rule on their stopgap funding bill that would prevent any member of Congress from bringing up a resolution terminating Trump’s declaration of a national emergency over fentanyl and undocumented immigrants entering the U.S.

However, proponents hope Senate approval of the measure crafted by Kaine, Klobuchar and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) would put pressure on House Republicans to act.

President Donald Trump’s unexpected decision to withdraw Rep. Elise Stefanik’s U.N. nomination and keep her in the House is exposing fresh electoral fears for the GOP — and creating some chaos on Capitol Hill.

Trump’s not alone in believing that the New York special election to replace Stefanik could have been a real challenge, even though she carried the district by 24 points last year.

Trump’s move is the clearest sign yet that the political environment has become so challenging for Republicans that they don’t want to take a risk even in a safe, red seat. At stake is an already-thin GOP margin of control in the House. Republicans have been anxious about the special election to fill national security adviser Mike Waltz’s Florida seat next week.

“Can they defend her seat? Absolutely,” said Charlie Harper, who was a top aide to former Rep. Karen Handel in her successful 2017 run in a special election in Georgia. “But why do you do that right now?”

Republican lawmakers appeared to be caught off guard that Trump only now decided to be mindful of the thin House majority, months after first being warned about the perils of plucking out members.

“A little late to the game,” one House Republican said.

One senior GOP aide said that the last few days likely looked brutal for Trump, with House and Senate Republicans at odds over how to start moving his legislative agenda and the Florida special election requiring increasing GOP resources. Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack also announced this week that she’s pregnant and due in August — another factor that could shrink the House GOP margin for a while with Speaker Mike Johnson dead-set against allowing proxy voting for new parents.

“It probably looked very bad all at once,” the person said.

Stefanik said in a Fox News interview Thursday night that her move is intended to help House Republicans pass Trump’s legislative agenda.

“It really came to a culmination today, but it was a combination of the New York corruption that we are seeing under [Gov.] Kathy Hochul, special elections and the House margin,” she said. “And look, I’ve been in the House. It’s tough to have to count these votes every day.”

What’s next? Some big questions loom over how Stefanik will return to the House. Johnson says that Stefanik, previously the Republican conference chair, is invited “to return to the leadership table immediately.” But Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain has been serving in Stefanik’s old leadership post since January and plans to stay. In addition, the administration has placed staff that Stefanik recruited from her congressional office to serve in the State Department’s U.N. office.

Asked what her leadership position would be, Stefanik said on Fox she will “continue speaking out,” without elaborating further.

What else we’re watching

• Proxy voting fight: House GOP leaders are racing to stop a discharge petition from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna that would allow new parents to vote by proxy. Under House rules, Luna’s measure can be called up early next week unless GOP leaders find a way to intervene.
• Shaky budget plans: Majority Leader Steve Scalise declined to commit that the House would finalize a unified budget blueprint for Trump’s legislative agenda before the two-week Easter recess. Scalise said in a brief interview that any changes the Senate might make to the budget resolution the House approved last month could potentially delay a vote.
• Next week on the Hill: The House will consider a bill that would require proof of identification for voting and another bill that would rein in lower-court judges’ ability to issue far-reaching injunctions. The Senate will continue moving through Trump’s nominees, including Matthew Whitaker for ambassador to NATO. Senate Democrats plan to force a vote as soon as Tuesday on Trump’s Canada tariffs. 

Andrew Howard, Ally Mutnick, Ben Jacobs, Brakkton Booker and Meredith Lee Hill contributed reporting.

Sen. Mitch McConnell warned Thursday that advisers to President Donald Trump are pursuing an “illusory peace” with Russia that “shreds America’s credibility, leaves Ukraine under threat, weakens our alliances and emboldens our enemies.”

They are among the most pointed words from any elected Republican since Trump ordered U.S. officials to begin direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government about bringing the Ukraine war to a close. And it is some of the most direct criticism McConnell has levied against the administration since giving up his top GOP leadership role and pledging to speak out against the isolationist wing of his party.

“When American officials court the favor of an adversary at the expense of allies, when they mock our friends to impress an enemy, they reveal their embarrassing naivete,” McConnell said, according to prepared remarks shared with POLITICO ahead of a U.S.-Ukraine Foundation event Thursday where he was honored.

“Unless we change course, the outcome we’re headed for today is the one we can least afford: a headline that reads ‘Russia wins, America loses,’” he added.

Trump sent shockwaves through Washington when he and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last month. That confrontation came as Trump has adopted a warmer tone toward Putin, sparking pushback from some Republicans.

While some GOP lawmakers have warned the administration not to bend to Russia as it tries to hash out a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv, many top congressional Republicans have signaled they are willing to give Trump space.

Not McConnell, however, who vowed shortly after he announced last year that he would step down as Senate Republican leader that he would use his final years in the chamber to advocate for a muscular foreign policy. As Senate GOP leader he helped shepherd additional Ukraine aid through Congress, even as he faced fierce pushback from MAGA-oriented Republicans in the House, as well as some of his own members.

That was part of the reason McConnell was honored Thursday with the “Star of Ukraine” award from the foundation, recognizing “individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to advancing Ukraine’s freedom and security.”

Though McConnell has supported most of Trump’s nominees, he has voted against high-profile national security picks, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He also ultimately supported the seven-month funding bill Congress passed earlier this month while warning that it could hurt the Pentagon.

In his prepared remarks for Thursday’s event, McConnell did not directly criticize Trump, and he did not call out any of his advisers by name.

He also stressed the need to increase defense spending, pointing back to a “peace through strength” mantra that has been popular among Trump administration officials.

“But too many of those who use it — particularly among the president’s advisers — don’t seem ready to summon the resources and national will it requires,” he added.

A group of Senate Republicans left a meeting with top White House officials Thursday saying they are increasingly confident that President Donald Trump will send a package of spending cuts to Capitol Hill for lawmakers’ approval.

The senators, however, said they did not yet have a timeline for when the Trump administration might request what are known as rescissions — a process allowing Congress to claw back previously approved funding by a simple-majority vote in both chambers.

“Nothing happens until it’s done, but I believe we’ll have a rescissions package,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), adding that he has spoken frequently about it with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who was in the meeting with GOP senators on Thursday.

Vought declined to comment upon leaving the meeting.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso added that there was a “big appetite” among Republicans to rescind funding “abuses” identified by the White House, an apparent reference to efforts by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative to slash the size of the federal bureaucracy.

“That has to originate from the White House, and we’ve been meeting with White House officials about doing just that,” Barrasso said as he left the meeting.

The closed-door meeting comes after Senate Republicans pitched Musk personally on rescissions during a lunch earlier this month. Some senators have argued that having Congress vote on DOGE’s cuts could give them more staying power given the legal challenges the administration is facing over Musk’s work.

Still, some Republican senators believe the administration is in no hurry to send over a package of cuts, preferring to fight the DOGE battles in the courts first.

Two Republican lawmakers, including the chair of the House China committee, stepped up their attacks Thursday against a potential White House deal to sell TikTok to Oracle that preserves a role for its Beijing-based owner.

“I’m here to make one thing clear: any deal that allows ByteDance to maintain control of TikTok is a grave threat to our security and a violation of U.S. law,” House Select Committee on China Chair John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) said, repeating the hard line he drew against the Oracle plan in an earlier op-ed. “ByteDance is trying to hold onto TikTok by pushing a licensing deal and maintaining control over its algorithm and staff.”

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) stressed “there has to be an absolute pure divestiture” and broke down what a compliant alternative would look like: “For me, it’s really important the source code, algorithm and data and servers are all completely separated from mainland China, from ByteDance.”

Moolenaar and Cammack were speaking at an event hosted by the TikTok Coalition, founded by former lobbyist and CEO of Iggy Ventures Rick Lane. About 20 people attended the event, which convened in a House meeting room.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

The White House is seriously discussing the deal and has accelerated talks with Oracle ahead of President Donald Trump’s April 5 deadline for a sale, even as China hawks and legal experts say it would violate the law Congress passed last spring to force TikTok’s sale or ban in the U.S.

Lawmakers said Thursday they expect that latest tactic by TikTok to backfire, pointing to it as evidence of the app’s hold over its users — a would-be asset to a foreign rival like China.

“They’re running a massive PR campaign across the U.S. to sway public opinion and distract from the core issue: ongoing Chinese control of the app,” Moolenaar said.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik will return to House Republican leadership after President Donald Trump withdrew her nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed Thursday.

“I will invite her to return to the leadership table immediately,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.

The speaker will likely have to create a new, honorary leadership position for Stefanik, the former No. 4 House Republican. She didn’t run again for Republican conference chair last December after Trump nominated her to be in his administration.

The sitting GOP conference chair, Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, is not planning to step down from her post, according to a person who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about her plans.

It would not be unprecedented for Johnson to create a new leadership position to solve an internal political quandary. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi created a role for House Democrats nearly two decades ago that became known as “assistant leader” and “assistant speaker” to allow more close allies at her leadership table.

Trump’s decision to pull Stefanik’s nomination caught many Republicans on Capitol Hill off guard — as did his public acknowledgment that her seat, which Trump won by 21 points in November, could have been in jeopardy for Republicans in a special election.

“With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day.”

House GOP leaders are racing to head off a vote being pushed by one of their own members on a measure that would allow lawmakers who are new parents to vote by proxy.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has already gathered enough member signatures on a discharge petition to force a vote. But Speaker Mike Johnson, who argues that proxy voting is unconstitutional, is considering several options to prevent it from happening as Luna mulls the way forward.

They include trying to kill the discharge petition in the Rules Committee next week, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter who, like others quoted in this story, were granted anonymity to discuss private talks. Some hard-liners are also floating a more drastic option: changing the House rules to effectively block future discharge petitions this Congress by making the process to trigger a fast-track floor vote much more burdensome, the three people said.

“There aren’t many good options here,” said one GOP lawmaker.

Right now, GOP leaders appear focused on trying to peel away some of the 11 Republicans who joined Luna in signing the discharge petition. Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Whip Tom Emmer and others have aggressively whipped members against the effort, according to three GOP lawmakers who have spoken with them.

Luna said Thursday she has been lobbied heavily herself by House Republican leaders to abandon her effort, which would allow for 12 weeks of proxy voting for new parents. She said they offered to bring her bill to the Rules Committee if she would agree to drop the discharge petition, but Luna has so far rejected that deal. She said she heard Republicans on the panel would block it from the floor.

”If you’re going to negotiate, you’re not going to be honest with the negotiations, there is no negotiation,” she said, later adding, “I am not going to destroy democracy by allowing female members to vote when recovering from birth.”

Luna said leaders are also threatening members who are backing her, telling them their bills will not come to the floor and that the party won’t be “helping with fundraising.” She said she was also offered committee assignments she had previously been denied as an enticement to end her proxy-voting push.

One Republican who joined Luna in the discharge effort, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, said “somebody” offered to bring a bill he sponsored to the floor in exchange for switching his vote.

“Voting against pregnant women, are y’all crazy?” Burchett said he responded.

A spokesperson for Johnson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the strong-arm allegations.

Under House rules, Luna’s measure can be called up as privileged business seven legislative days after the completion of the discharge petition. That would tee up the effort for action early next week unless GOP leaders can find an off-ramp.

They aren’t at this point openly pursuing a permanent rules change, something that could invite a slew of other member demands for rules tweaks. One option Johnson and his leadership circle had been considering — changing House rules to make discharge petitions subject to a two-thirds majority rather than the current 218 signatures — is no longer considered likely after at least one Rules Committee Republican warned they wouldn’t support raising the threshold, according to two people with direct knowledge who were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

Instead, hard-liners are floating other rules changes that would make it significantly harder to call up a discharged measure as privileged business, allowing for a fast-track vote.

Most Republicans are vehemently opposed to allowing proxy voting, which was widely used under Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the Covid pandemic from 2020 through 2023, when the GOP took back control of the chamber and abolished it.

“The speaker needs to kill it,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a Freedom Caucus member who also sits on the Rules Committee.

Luna said the position of Norman, Johnson and other GOP opponents of proxy voting is at odds with the family friendly policies of President Donald Trump. She noted that his daughter Ivanka previously worked to enact parental leave for federal workers with the president’s support.

”I have a feeling President Trump is probably aware of the situation,” said Luna, who attended a White House Women’s History Month event Wednesday. “And I have a feeling that yesterday, his speech was pretty straightforward on what he feels, that people should be inclusive with families.”

Three big developments are poised to give Republican lawmakers long-sought clarity on how they can get moving on President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda — and when they need to finish.

Time to punt: As they rush to settle on a budget framework before Easter recess, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are signaling that they’ll move forward without resolving some major disputes over how to pay for Trump’s tax, border and energy policies — including controversial Medicaid cuts.

They’ll do that by approving a budget resolution that defers to each chamber’s respective committees for how much money they will need to trim from programs under their jurisdictions, and then try to merge the approaches later.

Tax clarity: The Senate parliamentarian is expected to decide in the coming days whether Republicans can use an accounting approach known as “current policy baseline” that would allow them to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts in a costless fashion.

Thune said in an interview that Republicans need to know if the parliamentarian will green-light their strategy before taking their budget resolution to the floor, which they want to do as soon as next week.

Separately on Wednesday, House GOP tax writers met in private with Joint Committee on Taxation chief Thomas Barthold to discuss next steps on their tax package. The non-partisan JCT will have to weigh in on the cost of extending tax cuts and Trump’s other tax pledges, including eliminating taxes on tips and overtime work.

X marks the deadline: CBO announced Wednesday that the U.S. will default on its debt around August or September if Congress doesn’t act — in effect setting a new deadline for Republicans to pass Trump’s mega-bill if they stick with a plan to include a debt ceiling increase.

House Republicans are hoping the updated “X-date” lights a fire under the Senate GOP to speed things up.

“We all know Congress needs a deadline to get anything done,” said a senior House GOP aide granted anonymity to speak freely. “This is the new deadline.”

What else we’re watching:

• Schumer’s staying: Despite fury across the party over the shutdown fight, Democratic lawmakers and frustrated donors are making the calculation that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is here to stay. There’s no obvious alternative nor any appetite among most Senate Democrats for a messy leadership contest. Schumer is working to convince his members that he understands the need to ramp up their tactics, though it’s clear he still has some work to do.
• What’s next for Signalgate: Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker says he and his Democratic counterpart Jack Reed are looking into an expedited probe of the Signal chat breach involving top Trump administration officials. They are requesting a Pentagon inspector general review and a classified briefing for their committee.
• Trump’s SEC pick testifies: Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to lead the SEC, will tell Senate Banking on Thursday that establishing a “firm regulatory foundation” for cryptocurrency would be a top priority of his chairmanship. The nomination hearing is poised to be the latest illustration of the crypto industry’s ascendance in the Trump era, after it faced a regulatory crackdown from the SEC under President Joe Biden. Atkins, a longtime financial industry consultant and former SEC commissioner, is expected to face scrutiny from Democrats over his Wall Street ties.