Senate Republicans thwarted an effort by Democrats to pass a joint resolution that would effectively end the reciprocal and 10 percent baseline tariffs put in place by President Donald Trump in early April.

Despite three GOP members voting in favor of passage, the absence of two senators left the vote on the resolution tied at 49-49. The absence of Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who was expected to vote with the Democrats, meant supporters didn’t have enough votes for passage on Wednesday.

Vice President JD Vance then broke a tie on a motion by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to table the reconsideration of the resolution, effectively killing it with a separate, 50-49 vote.

“Leader Thune and Senate Republicans tonight voted to keep the Trump tariff-tax in place. They own the Trump tariffs and higher costs on America’s middle-class families,” Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was a co-sponsor of the measure offered by Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Along with Paul, Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted for the resolution.

“Government by one person assumes all power by asserting a so-called emergency, is the antithesis of constitutional government,” Paul said on the Senate floor, referring to the April 2 national emergency Trump declared under a 1977 law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Trump also cited a 1976 law known as the National Emergencies Act and other statutes.

Trump’s April 2 executive order said underlying trade conditions posed a threat to the U.S., adding that “large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits” were a manifestation of the threat.

The U.S. had a $918.4 billion goods and services trade deficit in 2024, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Trump used the laws to place tariffs as high as 50 percent on goods imports from dozens of countries and a 10 percent baseline tariff on all countries. He later paused the reciprocal tariffs until early July, but left a 145 percent tariff on goods imported from China. The baseline tariffs remain in place.

“Our founders led a rebellion against a king precisely over this,” Paul said. “The founders would be shocked that Congress would voluntarily and recklessly and fecklessly give up their power to the presidency to submit to emergency rule.”

Wyden also called for Congress to act.

“The United States Senate cannot be an idle spectator in the tariff madness,” Wyden said on the floor. “Congress has the power to set tariffs and regulate global trade, and members can vote today, not do something in a month or some other time, but members can vote today, to put an end to Trump’s global tariffs and the economic disaster they’re creating.”

Wyden’s resolution, along with another from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has forced Republicans to publicly declare their positions on the tariffs.

Four Republicans joined Democrats earlier this month to pass Kaine’s resolution that would end 25 percent tariffs on Canada. That resolution would end the fentanyl and immigration emergency Trump used to justify those tariffs. McConnell supported that resolution.

Republican critics of the tariff agenda may get additional chances in the Senate and House to vote on legislation that would reassert congressional oversight over tariff actions.

Collins voted for both tariff resolutions, although she said she prefers a bill by Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, that would require Congress to approve tariffs within 60 days of the president imposing them, or they would expire. It also would allow them to pass a resolution of disapproval at any point for tariffs. Trump has threatened to veto that bill, according to media reports.

“But I do not support the policy on tariffs. I think that it’s too — that the policy is too broad and doesn’t distinguish between our allies and our adversaries,” Collins said.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., is the sponsor of a companion bill. Reps. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and Jeff Hurd, R-Colo., are the only Republican co-sponsors.

House Republicans have taken steps to block legislative efforts to remove the tariffs. They put safeguards in place to preserve the tariffs on Canada and Mexico by adopting a resolution in March that prevents the House from terminating the national emergency declared to justify the tariffs for the remainder of the first session.

They followed that same framework to protect the reciprocal and baseline tariffs by adopting a resolution that would prevent any floor vote until Sept. 30 on measures that would terminate the national emergency of trade deficits used to justify reciprocal tariffs.

“It’s trickery, chicanery, deceitfulness, dishonestness,” Paul said to reporters about the House rules. “They’ve created a rule that basically overturns a very important law that is supposed to check the ability of a president to act unilaterally under an emergency.”

“You know, a tornado might be an emergency — a tornado strikes the capital and half of Congress is killed. A war might be an emergency. But I don’t see any rationale, legitimate rationale, for how you have an emergency with 80 countries,” Paul said.

He confirmed that he’s spoken with Trump about his opposition to the use of IEEPA.