The House of Representatives has an opportunity to overturn President Donald Trump’s several national emergency declarations and subsequently block his sweeping nonreciprocal tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The National Emergencies Act requires Congress to vote every six months on whether to end the alleged emergencies that underlie IEEPA tariffs, A resolution terminating a national emergency must be voted on within a specified number of days. If it passes the House and Senate, it is sent to the President, who has the option of vetoing it.
To get around these National Emergencies Act requirements last year, the House of Representatives implemented a series of rule changes. For example:
“Each day for the remainder of the first session of the 119th Congress shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act.”
“Each day during the period from April 9, 2025, through September 30, 2025, shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act.”
“The provisions of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act shall not apply during the period from September 16, 2025, through March 31, 2026.” (Note: This date was later changed to January 31, 2026.)
The concerns raised by language like “Each day shall not constitute a calendar day” and “The provisions of the National Emergencies Act shall not apply” should be apparent. An additional matter for consideration is that these changes were not even presented for individual consideration but instead rolled into rules for other “must-pass” bills.
If House members do not like provisions of the National Emergencies Act, they should amend it, not repeatedly change their rules to get around it. At a minimum, if they do want to change the rules, they should allow for a clean vote on such changes.
IEEPA tariffs are simply taxes that cancel out much of the tax relief contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But, regardless of what someone thinks about IEEPA tariffs, there should be agreement that Congress should respect the law. The House should not adopt any new rule changes that would allow it to circumvent the legal procedures spelled out in the National Emergencies Act, including the requirement to vote on whether to terminate specific national emergencies underlying IEEPA tariffs.