Sen. Wyden pushes legislation for small businesses to receive refunds following SCOTUS tariff ruling

OREGON, USA — After several months of dealing with tariffs, the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority to impose widespread tariffs using a law reserved for a national emergency.

Now, Sen. Ron Wyden is working to pass the Tariff Refund Act, which would allow for small businesses to be refunded the money lost from these tariffs within 180 days of its passage.

It would mandate U.S. Customs and Border Protection to pay out refunds from the unlawfully collected tariffs. It also suggests big businesses should pass refunds off to smaller businesses impacted.

“They could do it voluntarily; the bill speaks to several requirements for small businesses and matters that the small business administration has to do, and then 180 days and things of this nature. The big businesses ought to step up," said Wyden.

Wyden said Friday that Trump does not have small businesses' best interests in mind.

“Donald Trump, since his approach was struck down, has not been willing to lift a finger to help these small businesses that his lawyers said specifically they would help if their approach was struck down," said Wyden.

Small businesses said they've been struggling since the tariffs were imposed.

“When we're looking at a tariff for us, that was upwards of 50 to 60 cents a pound; that relates to an extra dollar a pound when you come to wholesale to the consumer," said Mark Stell, cofounder of Portland Coffee Roasters. “This last year, I think we averaged like 50, 60 cents a pound. But in totality, it was over $350,000 in cost."

Stell said he's had to do layoffs as well.

Jon DeAsis, president of Benchmade Knives, has had to drastically reduce hiring and is also facing similar struggles.

“We also see some other things and cost increases passed on by vendors... I would say probably to the tune of over a million dollars at least,” he said. "We made the ethical choice not to pass on prices to our customers and eat those costs, so it’s coming out of my bottom line."

The reality of these funds actually being refunded, however, seem slim according to some economists.

“Because there is no clear protocol, I think it's going to end up in courts and things like that, and small business can't afford hiring lawyers at thousands of dollars an hour to try to get that money back. So it's going to be a mess," said Professor Bahram Adrangi, who lectures at the University of Portland.

He said he believes it will all likely end up in court, and he acknowledges lawyers may be hard to come by financially for small businesses. He also said he worries about potential corruption sneaking in when it comes to refunds.

The bill has been introduced to the Senate but has yet to be voted on.