Mike Johnson: Congress unlikely to find ‘consensus’ to codify Trump tariffs

By Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill | 02/24/2026 06:26 AM EST

The speaker threw cold water on legislative efforts following last week’s Supreme Court ruling.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stops to speak with reporters as he walks into his office at the Capitol Feb. 23, 2026.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stops to speak with reporters as he walks into his office at the Capitol on Monday. Francis Chung/POLITICO

Congress is unlikely to take up any legislation to codify President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda after the Supreme Court struck down the administration’s sweeping levies last week, Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday.

“It’s going to be, I think, a challenge to find consensus on any path forward on the tariffs, on the legislative side,” Johnson told reporters. “And so that is why, I think, you see so much of the attention on the executive side, the executive branch, and what they’re doing and how they’re reacting to the ruling.”

That applies to enacting Trump’s tariffs as part of any second party-line megabill passed through the budget reconciliation process, an idea that some Republicans publicly floated in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court decision.

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“I’m not sure it has much to do with reconciliation,” Johnson said.

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