Congress should reassert its role in trade policy after the midterms
The constitutional argument here is worth taking seriously. The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, yet over the past several decades Congress has steadily handed that authority to the White House. If the midterms shift the balance of power, a move to reclaim trade policy would be more than procedural theater.
The timing matters. With oil prices climbing because of the Iran conflict, voters are feeling the pinch at the pump, and tariffs on top of that only add to the sense that trade policy is being run by executive whim rather than any kind of deliberative process. Popular opinion has turned against the tariffs, and that gives lawmakers real political cover to act.
I'd want to know what a reassertion would actually look like in practice. Would Congress simply try to claw back authority, or would it legislate a more permanent framework for how trade deals and tariffs get approved? The risk is that lawmakers grab the issue for political points without offering a coherent alternative. Still, a genuine debate about who sets trade policy feels overdue, especially when the costs are showing up in household budgets.