Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday morning, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had plenty to say about how the Senate had abdicated its authority on foreign policy to the president. Cruz is right, and now it’s time for the Senate to do something about it — including when it comes to trade.
Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, started off waxing poetic about the power of the Senate. Quoting Henry Cabot Lodge, he told the audience: “War can be declared without the consent of the executive and peace can be made without the accent of the House, but neither war nor peace can be made without the assent of the Senate.”
To which Cruz added his own dig at the current state of things: “Or at least that was the case for generations of statesmen.”
From there, he went on to lament the Senate’s “dereliction of this particular duty” that has, according to him, led “the pendulum of our foreign policy shining unpredictably without the strong stabilizing role of the Senate.”
Cruz also took a stab at diagnosing the problem, saying that senators have willingly handed over responsibility because “it’s much easier to dump all your problems on the executive branch.”
On these points, Cruz hits the nail on the head. Congress has given up its lawmaking authority on foreign policy, and the result has been a headache of inconsistency for U.S. interests abroad.
But when pressed on the specifics, Cruz might well have been one of his colleges that he made the foils in his opening remarks.
After pointing out that the Constitution delegates the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations” to Congress, the moderator asked Cruz if it should be “the president’s right to impose tariffs?”
Although Cruz acknowledged that he is “concerned about the unilateral imposition of tariffs hurting American jobs,” he stopped well short of challenging Trump’s trade war power.
Instead, he offered a weak explanation: “Unfortunately, Congress in previous decades in its great wisdom has abdicated its authority in this area as well and given the executive broad unilateral authority. I think that’s a mistake.”
He further justified Congress’s lack of accountability adding, “But it is the law. It is in the United States code and was passed legitimately so under existing federal law, the president has wide unilateral authority with regard to tariffs and trade.”
Cruz finished off his answer by avoiding the question of constitutional authority entirely and instead suggesting that the best way to make headway on promoting free trade is “making the case within the administration … and hoping that the advocates of greater trade prevail.”
If that’s his best answer, Cruz must not have been paying much attention last night as Trump pushed to seize even more power on tariffs. He also seems to have overlooked the work of his colleagues in the Senate to take back authority.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., have already introduced legislation with bipartisan backing that would give Congress back some of its power on trade. The bill, known as the Bicameral Congressional Trade Authority Act of 2019, would greatly restrict the president’s ability to do what Cruz criticized: implementing unilateral tariffs.
Cruz, for all of his talk of Congress needing to retake responsibility and pro-free trade rhetoric, however, is not among the bill’s co-sponsors which include Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., along with several Democratic backers.
Cruz correctly diagnosed the problem when it comes to the Senate and foreign policy. Those remarks ring empty, however, unless he is part of the solution. And wishful thinking that Trump will wake up tomorrow in the pro-free trade camp is not the answer.
