Legislative Highlights March 2025

President Trump Places 25 Percent Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum

President Donald J. Trump on Feb. 10 signed two official proclamations1 that would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum from all countries. He said that the action was necessary to protect America’s critical steel and aluminum industries, which have been harmed by unfair trade practices and global excess capacity.

During his first term, President Trump in March 2018 invoked authority under § 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (19 U.S.C. § 1862) to impose 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum. While the administration claimed that these measures were effective in supporting recovery and reinvestment in the American steel industry and saved the domestic primary aluminum industry from total collapse, President Trump said that exemptions and loopholes have permitted evasion of the tariffs and weakened the effectiveness of the program. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the European Union, Ukraine and the U.K. had received exemptions, which prevented the tariffs from being effective. Key reforms include eliminating all alternative agreements, applying strict “melted and poured” standards, expanding tariffs to include key downstream products, terminating all general approved exclusions, and cracking down on tariff misclassification and duty evasion schemes.

Ford CEO Jim Farley was sharply critical2 of President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on cars and components from Mexico and Canada. Ford makes several vehicles in Mexico, including the Maverick pickup and Mustang Mach-E electric SUV, and engines in Canada. “A 25 percent tariff across the Mexico and Canadian border will blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen,” Farley said. He also said that if Republicans repeal Biden-era legislation that allocated billions of dollars in subsidies and loans for electronic vehicle projects, many jobs at Ford would be at risk. Ford has invested heavily in factories to produce batteries and electric vehicles in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Senators Push for 10 Percent Cap on Credit Card Interest

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Feb. 4 introduced bipartisan legislation, S. 381, to immediately cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent for five years.3 The legislation follows President Trump’s campaign promise of a 10 percent interest rate cap. “Capping credit card interest rates at 10 percent, just like President Trump campaigned on, is a simple way to provide meaningful relief to working people,” Sen. Hawley said.

“When large financial institutions charge over 25 percent interest on credit cards, they are not engaged in the business of making credit available. They are engaged in extortion and loan-sharking,” Sen. Sanders said. “This legislation will provide working families struggling to pay their bills with desperately needed financial relief.”

In the 118th Congress, Sen. Hawley introduced a similar measure,4 but it contained a different rate cap. S. 2760, the “Capping Credit Card Interest Rates Act,” aimed to cap credit card interest rates at 18 percent. While it was referred to the Senate Banking Committee shortly after introduction, the bill was not considered by the Committee and failed to attract cosponsors.

Prospects for consideration of the new measure are more favorable, as S. 381 has received bipartisan co-sponsorship as it heads to the Senate Banking Committee for consideration.

Rep. Cohen Reintroduces Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) on Jan. 15 reintroduced5 the “Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act” (H.R. 423), which aims to provide critical relief to those in severe financial distress because of overwhelming student loan debt. Before 2005, private student loans issued by for-profit lenders had been treated in bankruptcy like most other unsecured consumer debt, such as credit card debt. Section 523(a)(8) of the Bankruptcy Code currently prohibits the discharge of private educational debt unless the debtor, in addition to meeting the already stringent requirements for personal bankruptcy, proves that repayment would impose an “undue hardship” on the debtor and the debtor’s dependents.

H.R. 423 aims to ensure that privately issued student loans will once again be treated like other consumer debt and be dischargeable in bankruptcy. Rep. Cohen has remained committed to the issue despite receiving minimal legislative traction since introducing the “Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act” in every Congress since the 111th in 2010. “We have waited far too long for this commonsense solution to be enacted, and for fairness to return to the treatment of all consumer debt,” he said.

At press time, H.R. 423 has four additional Democratic co-sponsors — Reps. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) — but no Republican support. With Republicans maintaining a majority in both chambers of Congress, the “Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act” faces challenging prospects for consideration once again in the 119th Congress.

Targeted by DOGE, CFPB Activities Frozen by Trump Administration

Russell Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget who was temporarily named acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Feb. 7, closed the agency’s headquarters on Feb. 86 and ordered staff to halt all of their supervisory efforts. Vought’s declaration to stop agency work goes further than the one issued by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had briefly been installed on Feb. 3 as the acting CFPB head. Bessent had called on the agency to not start any new investigations, or approve or issue final rules.

Representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) entered the CFPB’s offices and were granted access to data the week of Feb. 3.7 The officials were given “read-only” access to various systems, according to an email to staff reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Musk on Feb. 7 had posted “CFPB RIP” on his X social-media platform with an emoji of a tombstone.

The CFPB has been in the crosshairs of the banking industry and Republicans since its inception in 2011 after being created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. The CFPB was the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) after identifying a number of consumer protection failures that led to the Great Recession of 2008.

Sen. Warren and other members of Congress have protested DOGE’s access and the resulting shutdowns at the CFPB. She held a rally8 on Feb. 10 outside the agency’s headquarters to defend the CFPB. Sen. Warren and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) also sent a letter9 on Feb. 11 calling on the heads of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and others to safeguard the sensitive data accessed by DOGE. They also said that they believed that DOGE’s accessing the CFPB and Treasury Department’s internal systems was in violation of the Constitution and other laws.

The “stop work” order remained in effect at press time, leaving the direction of the CFPB in flux. President Trump has nominated10 Jonathan McKernan, who previously served as a board member of the FDIC and senior counsel of policy at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be CFPB director.