Ranking Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) has called on several Trump administration officials to create a plan for refunding tariffs to American businesses, particularly small businesses, if courts overturn the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
In a letter addressed to Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Stephen Miran, Markey urged these agencies to establish and publicize procedures for potential tariff refunds. The request comes after judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals questioned President Trump’s claims of broad emergency authority to impose tariffs under IEEPA.
Markey stated in his letter, “Both the D.C. District Court and the U.S. Court of International Trade rejected the Administration’s blatant attempt to ignore the Constitution, which gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose tariffs and regulate foreign commerce. During a subsequent hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit at the end of July, judges expressed significant doubts about the Administration’s position, which claimed unlimited power to levy tariffs in response to anything the president deems a national emergency. Petitioners made it clear that IEEPA sets the bar for emergency powers quite high: it must rise to the level of ‘an unusual or extraordinary threat.’”
He further noted logistical challenges in providing refunds if courts rule against the administration: “The president’s own lawyers admitted in their brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals that if the Administration were to lose, businesses that have paid tariffs imposed unlawfully under IEEPA would be entitled to refunds. This would pose an incredible logistical challenge, as many tariffs are paid by third parties before being passed along to importers and their customers. Businesses would also likely be entitled to interest on their payments, which would make these misguided tariffs even more costly for the American taxpayer.”
Markey concluded by warning about potential consequences if no refund plan is prepared: “If the administration fails to prepare for a situation in which hundreds of billions of dollars in tariff revenue unlawfully collected from American businesses must be repaid, it would go down as a historic act of executive malpractice, making what would already be a major, economy-wide disruption exponentially worse. Your agencies must act now so that businesses, especially our small businesses, are not left hanging should the courts overturn President Trump’s destructive tariff regime.”
Earlier this month Markey sought passage of legislation known as the Small Business Liberation Act that aimed to exempt small businesses from global tariffs enacted by President Trump’s administration; however Senate Republicans blocked this effort on two occasions.
