WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell (D-AL) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN) announced today the House passage of a bipartisan amendment to the Commerce, Justice and Science funding bill calling on the Trump administration to release the Commerce Department’s Section 232 report on imported automobiles and auto parts.

“It has been over four months since the Department of Commerce submitted their Auto 232 Report to the White House, and neither Congress nor the public has seen the report,” Sewell said. “Unfortunately, I think I know why this Administration will not share this report.  It’s because the products hard-working Americans in the auto sector design, build, sell and service are not a threat to our national security. The auto workers in my district are terrified that any day President Trump could announce tariffs that would threaten their jobs.”

Sewell has been an outspoken opponent of the Trump Administration’s proposal to dramatically raise tariffs on auto imports. She led a bipartisan group of 159 lawmakers in a letter urging Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow and President Trump against imposing costly new tariffs that could harm the auto industry. Sewell and others have filed bipartisan legislation to delay auto tariffs by requiring the International Trade Commission (ITC) to conduct a comprehensive study on the economic importance of automotive manufacturing in America before tariffs on automobiles and auto parts could be applied. She is also the lead sponsor of the bipartisan, bicameral Trade Security Act, which would reform Section 232 to increase Congressional oversight in the Section 232 process and reassign national security threat assessments to the Department of Defense.  

The tariffs would deal a devastating blow to Alabama, where auto manufacturers are a powerful driver of the local economy. Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai assembly plants have made the state a hub for car and light truck production. According to the Peterson Institute, if auto 232 tariffs were implemented and foreign countries retaliated, 624,000 jobs could be lost in the auto sector.