Senate Democrats are expected to challenge President Donald Trump’s newly announced tariffs on Friday night as Republicans attempt to advance a blueprint that unlocks his legislative agenda.
In a marathon voting session that clears the way for the president’s tax, border, and energy priorities, Democrats signaled they would pillory Republicans over the market-rattling tariffs the White House unveiled on Wednesday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced an amendment on Friday that would rescind any tariff that increases the cost of goods like groceries or medicine, while Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from tourism-heavy Nevada, hopes to bring forward language repealing tariffs that could disrupt the travel industry.
The duties add a new wrinkle to what has been Democrats’ near-singular focus on Republicans’ proposed Medicaid cuts. In a Friday afternoon press conference, Schumer attempted to frame the two issues as a “pincer of pain” for consumers.
“On the one hand, Trump and the Republicans are taking away vital services,” Schumer said, “and then at the same time, with the other side of the pincer, they’re squeezing them by creating higher prices.”
Democratic leadership still plans to feature the proposed rollback of welfare programs prominently in their objections Friday night, when Republicans must endure a grueling “vote-a-rama” before they’re allowed to approve their budget blueprint.
Two months ago, preserving Medicaid was the through-line for a 10-hour floor protest they mounted to oppose a more narrow blueprint.
“The starting point is, American families should not see their basic services like Medicaid harmed to give tax breaks to the wealthy,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told the Washington Examiner.
But the newfound focus on tariffs suggests Democrats want to seize on a politically perilous moment for Republicans as they anxiously give Trump space to place barriers on trade.
In the two days since Trump unveiled nation-by-nation duties ranging from 10% to 49%, the White House has weathered a precipitous drop in the stock market.
Legislatively, the Senate also handed Trump the first blemish of his second term on Wednesday when four GOP senators joined Democrats to strike down an emergency declaration for his tariffs on Canada. The overnight voting will provide Democrats another chance to bring more Republican-dividing measures to the floor.
Democrats can request an unlimited number of amendments as voting gets underway on Friday. In February, senators worked through 26 votes before Democrats allowed the Senate to adjourn in the early morning hours.
None are binding, making the exercise largely symbolic, but the process represents a rare chance for Democrats, who lost control of the Senate in January, to go on legislative offense.
Republicans, for their part, portrayed the sheer breadth of Democrats’ attacks on Trump as a sign the party has still not recovered from its November election losses.
In a series of floor speeches teeing up the voting session, Democrats focused on everything from the deficit impact of the budget plan to concerns about the shuttering of federal agencies under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“I think that Sen. Schumer and his team don’t know what to do, and every time they get up on one knee, they get hit and get knocked back down again,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). “So I think they’re going to throw everything against the wall and try to see what sticks.”
Democrats are under immense pressure from their voting base to mount a more vocal challenge to Trump. In March, Schumer sparked grassroots outrage when he handed Republicans the votes to avoid a government shutdown, leading several House Democrats to call for his resignation from Senate leadership.
The vote-a-rama provides Schumer a venue to channel that discontent. In a Friday floor speech, he called the messaging blitz a bid to “put the Republican agenda on trial before the court of public opinion.”
Three days earlier, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) mounted a record-breaking talk-a-thon focused on the perceived abuses of the Trump administration.
Not all amendment votes are expected to come from the Democrats. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the lone Republican to oppose a test vote on the blueprint, has proposed language that would nearly eliminate an increase in the federal debt ceiling tucked into the resolution.
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All rank-and-file amendments to the blueprint are expected to fail, with Republicans able to raise objections that raise the threshold on certain votes.
If the budget resolution is approved, House adoption could come as soon as next week as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) tries to tamp down an unrelated dispute over proxy voting.