Ahead of Key Hearing, Watchdog Warns Tariffs Are Harming American Consumers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer testifies before the House Ways & Means Committee on the Trump administration’s trade policy for the coming year, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is calling for a reduction of U.S. tariff rates and for Congress to reassert its authority over trade policy. The government watchdog group is urging Congress to exercise oversight and to hold the administration accountable for its protectionist overreaches.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Americans have absorbed more than 90 percent of tariff costs. As the hearing occurs, American importers are working to recoup the tariffs they paid under the Trump administration’s tariffs that were ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in February. Congress should act to prevent further economic and legal turmoil.

In anticipation of the hearing, David B. McGarry, Research Director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, offered the following comment:

“The errors of the Trump administration’s first year of trade policy should not be repeated in the second. Increased protectionism has squeezed American businesses and consumers, and what was predicted by economists has come to pass: tariffs are taxes paid primarily by American citizens. For all its ambition to reignite the fires of American industry, the Trump administration has not managed to change the laws of economics. Its protectionism has hindered, not helped, the American economy.

“The Supreme Court rightly found the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s trade policy unconstitutional. Now, the White House is pursuing other legally dubious schemes to enact tariffs unilaterally, which are unlikely to survive legal challenges. However, although the judiciary will likely reach the right conclusion, Congress (the first branch of government), should not wait on the third branch to keep the executive confined to his rightful powers. Congress must intervene to ensure the President ceases to abuse the provisions of old statutes to exercise a power that is, by the plain text of the Constitution and of statute, entrusted to legislative branch.

“The developments of the first months of 2026 offer a chance to reevaluate the economically and legally discredited protectionism of 2025. Today, TPA urges Congress to begin the process of bringing an end to the Trump administration’s renegade trade policy. American businesses and consumers—not to mention the integrity of our constitutional order—demand it.”

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The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s impact on the economy.