Welcome to our weekly DC Wrap, where we write about Wisconsin’s congressional delegation. Sign up here to receive the newsletter directly.

Quotes of the week

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are stiffing our farmers and processors – taking away resources these folks were guaranteed. It’s unacceptable that this administration is leaving them high and dry just so they make their rich friends richer.
– U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, on cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. $7.3 trillion in spending cannot be justified. It’s time to focus on reducing spending and return to a reasonable pre-pandemic level.
– U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, on spending cuts and the budget. 

This week’s news

— Wisconsin delegates are split on President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, including a 10% baseline tariff on virtually any foreign imports. 

At a White House event yesterday, the president announced “reciprocal” tariffs starting today. Ahead of the event, Trump called it “Liberation Day,’’ He called it “one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history.’’

Trump signed an executive order issuing tariffs on countries he claimed leverage heavy tariffs on the U.S. For China, 34% tariffs plus 20% tariffs for the European Union, 46% for Vietnam, 24% for Japan and 25% for South Korea, among many others. These individualized tariffs will take effect April 9. He also said there would be a baseline tariff of 10% for any foreign products, which began earlier this morning. Trump also announced a 25% tariff on all foreign-made vehicles. 

Wisconsin Democrats criticized the announcement. 

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin denounced Trump’s focus on tariffs at a press conference ahead of the announcement. 

“While nobody but Donald Trump knows precisely what these tariffs will look like, I know enough to know that these tariffs will hurt our farmers and our manufacturers, and will jack up our prices on hardworking families across Wisconsin,” Baldwin said. 

U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, said the tariffs would lead to “economic uncertainty.” 

“Tariffs are a legitimate policy tool when designed to support American industries and workers,” Moore said on X. “But Trump’s haphazard approach is escalating tensions with our trading partners, risking raised prices.”

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, slammed Trump’s tariffs for raising costs for Americans. 

“There are reasons to have tariffs,” Pocan said in a statement to WisPolitics. “If someone’s dumping cheap steel in this country, we should put tariffs on them to support the American workers and the industry. But that’s not what these are. These are across-the-board tariffs that at the end of the day will drive up prices for American consumers.” 

U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said he wished the tariffs weren’t necessary, but he “trusts” that Trump’s policies will benefit the American people. 

“I wish it hadn’t reached this point, but President Trump has made it clear that countries have been taking advantage of the United States for too long, resulting in an erosion of American jobs to foreign countries—which is unacceptable,” Fitzgerald said in a statement to WisPolitics. “I stand with him in the fight to get fair trade agreements for the United States.”

U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, R-De Pere, praised Trump for putting America first with these tariffs. He emphasized that companies can do business in the U.S. to avoid tariffs. 

“President Trump has made it clear with these reciprocal tariffs that we will no longer allow other countries to take advantage of us,” Wied said in a statement to WisPolitics. “His goal is simple: to bring jobs and manufacturing back to our country and open up foreign markets to American products.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, also expressed support for Trump’s tariffs. 

“If they impose tariffs on us, we will impose tariffs on them,” Tiffany said on X. “President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs will bring back FAIR trade and put American workers FIRST.”

A national Marquette Law School poll conducted March 17-27 found 58% of adults think tariffs will hurt the U.S. economy, 28% say they help the economy and 14% say they don’t make a difference. Meanwhile, 52% of Republicans said tariffs help the economy, while 89% of Democrats and 58% of independents say they hurt the economy.

The poll surveyed 1,021 adults, with a margin of +/-3.5 percentage points.

— Baldwin said liberal Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford’s victory against conservative Brad Schimel was a “very firm repudiation” of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. 

Baldwin made the comments during a press conference ahead of Trump’s tariff announcement. Musk funneled more than $24 million to support Schimel in the race, including $3 million Musk donated to the state GOP that was transferred to Schimel and $21.3 million spent by Musk-aligned PACs. 

Baldwin said Wisconsinites had rejected Musk’s efforts to “buy a seat” on the court. She noted a case Tesla filed challenging a Wisconsin law barring car manufacturers from having dealerships.

“I think they saw through to the fact that Elon Musk’s, one of his companies, has litigation that’s ongoing within the state of Wisconsin and has a personal pecuniary interest in the outcome of this particular election,” Baldwin said. “And Wisconsinites rejected that, and rejected it rather resoundingly.” 

Musk in a reply to an X user following the election said he “expected to lose, but there is value to losing a piece for a positional gain.” 

— U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, this week argued a bill to require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections is necessary to ensure the existing requirement is enforced. 

Steil has focused on election administration in his role as chair of the House Administration Committee. He spoke in support of the SAVE Act during a Rules Committee hearing Monday.

Steil acknowledged it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, but argued there aren’t enough protections in current law to enforce the requirement. 

“This bill is about enforcing our laws and ensuring noncitizens cannot vote,” he said. “So it’s illegal to evade Border Patrol and illegally enter the country. It was illegal under the Biden administration, and it was illegal today under the Trump administration. But why have we seen the dramatic drop? Because of enforcement.” 

Steil noted the National Voter Registration Act requires states to provide voter registration forms to everyone who receives a driver’s license, regardless of citizenship. He said under that system, an applicant would just have to check a box saying they are a citizen. Use of the form is not permitted in Wisconsin. 

The House originally planned to vote on the measure this week. But Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said there would be no further floor action in the chamber after House lawmakers rejected a rules package on Tuesday. Lawmakers opposed a provision Johnson included in the package that would block a bipartisan plan to allow proxy voting for new parents. 

U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, argued the bill would create administrative hurdles that make it harder to vote. 

He said the measure wouldn’t allow people to vote with their military ID alone, and would impact 70 million women whose last name doesn’t match their birth certificate. While a passport would be accepted, Pocan noted millions of Americans don’t have passports, and they cost money to make. 

“This is the Republicans trying to make it harder to vote. And on the day in Wisconsin that people are going to the polls, remember who’s trying to make it harder and who’s not making it harder to be able to have your voice heard,” Pocan said in a video posted Tuesday, the same day as Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court election. 

— U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, has voiced support for including language in upcoming government funding bills to crack down on national injunctions by judges. 

Republicans have strongly criticized the judicial branch for halting and pausing Trump administration efforts, including calling to impeach judges who stand in the way of Trump’s agenda. 

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, in a letter to the House Appropriations Committee this week urged language to “enhance judicial restraint and reaffirm democratic principles.” Tiffany, who also serves on the committee, said he supports the call. 

“Our judicial system was never meant to allow a single rogue judge to wield nationwide veto power over the White House. This language must be included,” Tiffany said. 

— Wisconsin has joined a lawsuit with 23 other states suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for cutting $11 billion of public health grants to states.

According to filings from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, the federal government terminated six awards totaling over $225 million in Wisconsin. The release said state health agencies rely on these grants for public health needs such as infectious disease management, emergency preparedness, mental health and substance abuse services and modernizing public health infrastructure. 

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the grants would be terminated last week “for cause” because the COVID-19 pandemic is over. The Wisconsin DOJ claimed this week Congress had continued to approve funding for the grants to be used for other critical health services since the pandemic, and that Kennedy had “no legal authority” to cut off funding. 

Posts of the week

ICYMI

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republicans back move to limit judicial power to block Trump

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Toxic for years, relations between Wisconsin congressmen Van Orden and Pocan just got much worse

Spectrum News 1: Janesville Republican Bryan Steil seeks to regulate stablecoins

WPR: Wisconsin helpline will shut down, citing federal health grant cuts

Ashland Daily Press: Tiffany announces plans to reintroduce Apostle Islands bill soon

The Hill: Ron Johnson calls on John Roberts to ‘rein’ in ‘activist judges’

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