Senate Democrats are threatening to force a vote on repealing import tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
The announcement was made on X by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in response to news reports that job growth in the United States slowed in August. Democrats have attributed the slowdown to tariffs, alleging that other countries’ retaliatory tariffs have hurt U.S. exporters.
“Senate Democrats will force votes to reverse Donald Trump’s damaging tariffs,” Schumer wrote.
He provided no details about when the vote may occur, what tariffs would be affected, or how the minority party could “force” a vote.
Repealing tariffs would require the assent of the House of Representatives, which has a Republican majority and would be unlikely to pass it. Even if Congress passed a repeal, it would face the president’s veto. To override that, a two-thirds majority vote would be required in both houses.
The U.S. unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.3 percent, up from 4.2 percent in July, which was itself an increase. On a net basis, 22,000 jobs were added in August, according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released the highly anticipated report.
Across industries, the “goods-producing” sector lost the most jobs, 25,000. Within this group, manufacturing lost 12,000 jobs.
The net 22,000 increase was almost entirely the result of growth in “service providing” jobs, which added 63,000 hires, with private education and health services (i.e., hospitals and universities) contributing 46,000 new jobs, and leisure and hospitality adding 28,000. Those gains were partly offset by losses in other service sectors such as business services.
Federal government employment continued to decline in August, the report said, shedding 15,000 jobs.
The new data were criticized by Democrats, who attributed them to Trump’s policies.
“The August jobs report is the latest indication that Donald Trump is crashing our economy in real time and driving us toward a recession,” wrote Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the House minority leader and head of its Democratic Caucus.
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