Congressional Trade Powers Reform Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill would require the President to get Congress's approval before imposing new tariffs under national security, unfair trade practice, or import competition laws, reversing decades of delegated executive authority.
• A new 10-member Joint Committee on Tariffs and Trade, made up of Senate Finance and House Ways and Means members, would review every presidential trade proposal before Congress votes on it.
• Any approved tariff or trade action would automatically expire 180 days after taking effect unless the President and Congress repeat the approval process to extend it.
• The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative would be pulled out of the White House and made an independent agency, with officials no longer serving purely 'at the pleasure of the President.'
• Any trade agreement that legally binds the United States would need to be approved by an Act of Congress before it could take effect, closing off executive-only trade deals.