U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, a freshman Republican from Western Colorado, is sponsoring legislation amid President Donald Trump’s rapidly shifting trade war to set guardrails around the president’s ability to impose tariffs unilaterally, without lawmakers having a chance to weigh in.

The Grand Junction attorney told Colorado Politics that the bipartisan bill he introduced this week — with fellow sponsors Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, and Democrats Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Gregory Meeks of New York — would align the federal government’s international trade procedures with a constitutional requirement that Congress has the ultimate authority over tariffs.

“I cosponsored this legislation, along with Congressman Bacon and two of our Democratic colleagues, essentially returning authority back to Congress with respect to tariffs,” Hurd said, adding that he would have signed on to the bill whoever occupied the White House.

The Trade Review Act of 2025, a companion legislation to a Senate bill that has garnered seven Republican cosponsors, would require the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of imposing or increasing duties on imports and give lawmakers 60 days to approve or disapprove of the new tariffs.

Trump has said he will veto the bill in the unlikely event it passes both chambers of Congress.

Hurd said in an interview that he isn’t opposed to all tariffs — calling the levies “a helpful tool to have in the toolbox for negotiations” — but stressed that they can have “major impacts on farmers, small businesses and families” in districts like the one he represents.

“Article I Section 8 of the Constitution is clear that tariff authority resides with Congress, and I think those decisions — particularly on issues of economic importance like this — should be made with Congress having a say, and that is what this legislation would do,” he said.

Hurd said he wasn’t dissuaded from putting his name on the bill by Trump’s veto threat.

“One thing I’ve learned is these things are never static in politics, and oftentimes the way things look at any given moment can change. We’ll see how this plays out,” Hurd said. “When I was running for office, I talked about needing to look to the Constitution and follow the Constitution and then do what’s right by members of the 3rd Congressional District. Those were my two priorities, when I was running for office, and this legislation is consistent with those campaign promises I made.”

Hurd said he supports some of the goals Trump has stated since announcing last week that he intended to impose broad tariffs on every U.S. trading partner. The president said his tariffs policy would reverse decades of what he called unfair treatment by the rest of the world and result in factories and jobs moving back to the United States. 

“From a big picture standpoint, I think a lot of what’s driving the president’s focus on tariffs are things that I support,” Hurd said. “We talk about on-shoring or near-shoring manufacturing in our country and getting some of those jobs back, not just from an economic standpoint, but also from a national security standpoint. It’s not good that we’re relying on China and other countries that are hostile to us to power so much of our economy, so moving some of those industries back is something that I know is an important part of what the president is doing that I certainly support.”

Added Hurd: “I just want to make sure that we’re using the right tool to take care of those national security and strategic interests, and my concern is that the presidents tariffs go beyond that.”

Hurd said that he campaigned as a constitutional conservative and strives to legislate the same way.

“I just want to make it clear, this is not a political issue for me,” Hurd said. “I would be backing this legislation regardless of who the president is or which party is in the White House.”