In a major show of unity, the Senate just voted 88-11 in favor of a resolution by Sen. Bob Corker that rebukes Trump on his trade policies…well symbolically:
Senate votes to deliver broadside to Trump on trade policy while he is overseas. Votes 88-11 on non-binding motion to challenge Trump on him imposing tariffs on national security grounds.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 11, 2018
The Senate GOP conferees who will work with House on final text of minibus appropriations package all voted for Bob Corker’s motion to instruct conferees to include language rolling back Trump’s trade powers.
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) July 11, 2018
That doesn’t mean they actually will, or that the House is on board.
Senate votes 88 to 11 in favor of @SenBobCorker’s resolution to give Congress a say in national-security tariffs. The resolution was non-binding but a symbolic rebuke of Trump’s trade policies.
— Andrew Desiderio (@desiderioDC) July 11, 2018
As you can see it’s a non-binding rebuke that only calls for including language in the omnibus spending bill that would roll back Trump’s unilateral trade powers on national security grounds by including Congress in the imposition of new tariffs.
So in other words it doesn’t really do anything except to call for future action that may or may not happen.
In case you were wondering who voted ‘nay’ on the bill…
All 11 nays on tariff motion were GOPers: Barrasso, Capito, Crapo, Enzi, Graham, Heller, Hyde-Smith, Inhofe, Perdue, Risch & Scott
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 11, 2018
So that means both Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, among many others, voted for the resolution.
You can likely expect the argument from some of those voting ‘nay’ to be that they didn’t want to criticize the president while he is overseas.