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Comment by firejake308 | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone know why the Smoot-Hawley Tariff had to go through the Senate, but Trump can just sign an executive order? It's been a while since my high school government class

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It was too easy for one state’s congressional delegation to hold out for a special concession in any tariff negotiation, and then when the amended version came up to vote, another state would do it, and then another. So Congress gave the president unilateral power to set tariffs, which also is better going into a negotiation since the other side knows you can deliver whatever you agree on.

From the announcement[0]: "The extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl, constitutes a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)."

Here's an NYT article on the IEEPA[1], which was passed in the 1970s and allows the president to declare an emergency and then take actions based on that without Congressional action. I think that tariffs under the IEEPA have never been done before, but sanctions have.

0: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-pr...

1: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/us/politics/trump-tariffs...

The simple answer is that Trump can do whatever he wants, because the majority party in congress isn't going to challenge him.

The actual answer is that congress has already authorized the president to set tariffs by executive order.

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