Fails to override

House fails to override Biden veto of solar tariff resolution

House Democrats who backed the resolution to undo the moratorium called on lawmakers to vote to override the veto shortly thereafter.

By KELSEY TAMBORRINO

House lawmakers failed to garner enough support Wednesday to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a measure that would have rescinded his two-year moratorium on tariffs for imports of solar equipment from four Southeast Asian countries.

The House voted 214-205 on Wednesday, falling short of the two-thirds majority required to override Biden’s veto of the resolution, H.J. Res. 39 (118). Eight Democrats voted in favor of the veto override and eight Republicans voted against.

“Now is not the time to undermine our efforts in producing a robust supply chain in solar,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Ways and Means trade subcommittee, in floor remarks Wednesday.

Blumenauer had urged his colleagues to reject the push to override the veto, arguing Biden’s two-year pause gives the U.S. solar industry time to “reorient and to catch up.”

Context: The bipartisan resolution, which the House passed in April, targets a regulation enacting Biden’s moratorium on new import tariffs on solar cells and modules from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Biden issued the two-year pause amid a Commerce Department investigation into whether companies were circumventing existing tariffs on China by shuffling products through the four countries.

The Senate passed the Congressional Review Act resolution to undo the moratorium in early May.

Biden officially vetoed the resolution last week, arguing it “bets against American innovation” and would “create deep uncertainty for American businesses and workers in the solar industry.”

House Democrats who backed the resolution to undo the moratorium called on lawmakers to vote to override the veto shortly thereafter.

“We are rewarding the worst behavior and penalizing those companies that choose to follow the law,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), a co-sponsor of the resolution, on Wednesday. “Failing to act will mean that other countries will think they can simply take advantage of American business and the American worker, making us more reliant on foreign manufacturing supply chains, including for our clean energy needs.”

Background: When the House first voted on the provision in April, 12 Democrats joined 209 Republicans to vote in favor of it. Eight Republicans voted against the resolution.