This publication has for years urged Congress to take back the authority over tariffs that it needlessly delegated to the executive branch. Some legislators have introduced legislation to do so, but neither party’s congressional leadership has been interested in fulfilling their constitutionally charged power to set “taxes, duties, imposts, and excises.” This is unfortunate, to put it very mildly. Maybe, however, now that President Donald Trump has slapped historically high tariff rates on imports and seems intent on overturning a trading system that has brought prosperity to much of the world, especially the United States, Congress will get serious about the matter.

For the first almost 150 years of the republic, Congress actively engaged in raising and lowering tariffs with legislators, making deals on which goods would be taxed and at what rates. They did this to please farmers and manufacturers in their respective districts. It was not a good system in that it meant Washington was picking winners and losers, which is not something it does well. This modus operandi started to change in the Progressive Era when Congress passed the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act of 1934, which delegated to the president the then-unprecedented power to lower or raise tariff rates unilaterally on specific imported goods.