April 08, 2025 10:09 AM UTC

Jeff Hurd Joins Resistance To Trump Trade War

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Kathryn Squyres reports for the Durango Herald, Rep. Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction is once again breaking with the Trump administration on a high-profile policy matter, this time joining the growing chorus of Republican resistance to President Donald Trump’s sweeping “Liquidation Day” tariffs which have erased trillions of dollars of value from global markets in just a few short days:

“I am concerned about the broad-based tariffs that we’re seeing,” [Rep. Hurd] said. “I don’t believe that the president has the authority under the legislation (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) to enact these tariffs, and I think it’s incumbent on Congress to make sure that when we have tariffs like this, that they’re congressionally approved.”

Hurd is among the first House Republicans to flatly challenge the president’s authority on tariffs, joining Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska. Bacon told Politico on Friday that he plans to introduce a bill in the House mirroring the Senate’s Trade Review Act of 2025 – introduced Thursday by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. – which would give Congress more authority over tariffs.

Hurd didn’t say whether he planned to cosponsor Bacon’s forthcoming bill, but spoke favorably of the Senate bill. “Those are exactly the things that I’m looking at,” he said…

By Monday, seven Senate Republicans and six Senate Democrats – including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet – had lined up behind the Trade Review Act of 2025.

This morning, Colorado Public Radio’s Caitlyn Kim confirmed that Rep. Hurd has signed on as one of three original co-sponsors of the bill to limit the president’s ability to start a global trade war on a whim:

To be clear, this legislation has no realistic chance of making it through the GOP-controlled House and Senate to President Trump’s desk, and Trump has promised to veto the bill in the event it does. But what this bill represents is the first bipartisan legislative pushback against one of the cornerstones of Trump’s agenda, and Jeff Hurd is taking a public lead in the pushback. Politically, this is another case of Jeff Hurd taking a conscientious position with considerable risk, throwing his fellow freshman Rep. Gabe Evans’ canine loyalty to Trump in a much more competitive district into uncomfortably sharp relief. If the objective was to represent one’s constituents faithfully, Evans should be doing what Hurd is doing, and Hurd should be hewing closer to the MAGA party line.

But that’s not what’s happening. Jeff Hurd is the one showing courage, and Gabe Evans is the gutless Trump toady.

Of the two, Evans has more to lose from this mismatch–and more easily.