After the Supreme Court rebuked the legal basis for President Donald Trump’s tariff orders, three Senate Democrats on Monday unveiled legislation aimed at getting tariff revenue back to the companies and customers that paid it.
The proposal from Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire would direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to start issuing refunds over 180 days and to pay interest on the amounts it returns. The Democrats said the effort targets roughly $175 billion in tariff revenue collected under what the Supreme Court described as an illegal set of orders.
Wyden, who described the refunds as an urgent remedy, said the measure addresses what he called lasting damage from “wave after wave” of Trump tariffs. He said the “crucial first step” to fixing the problem begins with “putting money back in the pockets of small businesses and manufacturers as soon as possible.” Shaheen and Markey also tied the refund framework to their view that the government should repair the higher prices and costs that followed the tariffs.
According to the bill’s description, the refund process would prioritize small businesses and manufacturers. The legislation also encourages companies in the import and distribution chain—including importers, wholesalers and large businesses—to pass refunds on to customers rather than retain them.
Democrats said the bill would be one way to apply public pressure ahead of November’s midterm elections over what they view as a refusal to return the money. They pointed to Friday’s 6-3 Supreme Court ruling and argued that the administration has not shown interest in refunding tariff revenues proactively after the court’s decision.
The Trump administration has taken a different position, arguing that any refunds should be handled through further court litigation rather than an administrative refund process driven by the executive branch. A White House spokesman, Kush Desai, responded that “President Trump used tariffs to actually deliver” while accusing Democrats of trying “to undermine” the president and “the American people.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in remarks reported Sunday, also said it was “bad framing” to raise refunds because the Supreme Court ruling did not address that question directly.
Bessent told CNN that “it’s not up to the administration — it is up to the lower court” and said the administration would “wait” for a court opinion on refunds instead of providing guidance. In defending the tariff program, Trump has argued that the use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose broad tariffs on many trading partners helped end military conflicts, bring in federal revenue and apply pressure for new trade frameworks. He has previously said refunds would increase government debt and hurt the economy, and he has described refund timing as something that would likely play out through the courts after he leaves office.
The Democrats’ push also draws on estimates from the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, which estimated the refunds would total $175 billion—an average of $1,300 per U.S. household. The bill confronts an additional practical challenge the Democrats acknowledged indirectly: tariff costs flowed through the economy in multiple ways, including payments by customers and cost pass-through by importers. That uncertainty can complicate how refunds should be structured and delivered.