Washington farmers and tourism will suffer under Trump’s tariffs, U.S. Rep. DelBene warns

We're in week seven of Donald Trump's second presidential term. Between record numbers of executive orders, foreign policy shakeups, efforts to dismantle government agencies, and the firing of thousands of federal workers, predictions of a shock and awe approach to governing have proven to be true.

Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Suzan DelBene represents Washington's 1st Congressional District, which includes parts of King and Snohomish counties. She also chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. DelBene spoke to KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about how Democrats are responding to this Trump administration reboot.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: President Trump went ahead with his threat to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico today. What are you most concerned about in terms of the impact of that move?

Rep. Suzan DelBene: Well, it's going to raise prices for families all across the state of Washington, all across the country. It's really a tax on the American people. So we're going to see prices go up at the grocery store, at the gas pump, at the pharmacy counter, and really for no reason. I also think Congress should have to approve this. I think that's the appropriate path for something like this, that he did not get congressional approval.

Canada today announced counter tariffs in the amount of $30 billion, and there could be another round of tariffs on $125 billion worth of US goods in three weeks. Canada is one of Washington's top trade partners. How is this going to impact Washingtonians who export goods?

It will have a big impact, and in a lot of cases, that has a big impact on our farmers. Agriculture is an area frequently used for retaliation, and so being able to ship goods into markets like into Canada is going to become more and more expensive, make it harder for them to have the ability to access those markets. We know that even tourism has been down in terms of Canadians coming into the state of Washington. So, it's going to impact us in many ways.

Congress has to come up with a deal to fund the government by March 14, or else a shutdown will be triggered. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday that he wants to pass a continuing resolution, to avoid a shutdown. That would freeze funding at current levels. Johnson suggested that Republicans need that buffer to incorporate Elon Musk's DOGE cuts into legislation. How likely is it that he'll get something passed, and would Democrats be okay if there were a government shutdown?

Well, this whole thing has been a mess, and it's been a mess from the beginning of this fiscal year. The fiscal year started on October 1 of last year, and Republicans refused to pass a full year spending bill. We call it an appropriations bill. They didn't want to do it. They kept doing these continuing resolutions, continuing what we're doing last fiscal year for short periods of time. And so here we are, because Republicans didn't want to pass a full bill. Now we've got another deadline on March 14, without a plan for the rest of the fiscal year. So, I think it is the most expensive, least efficient way to budget. It’s terrible that we're in this position, and now they just want to do it all over again.

And you know, Congress has the power of the purse. We should be making decisions about how money is used and spent and the programs that are funded. It’s very, very important. We should be passing appropriations bills, but Republicans don't even agree with each other on the right path forward, and they've already been shutting down parts of the government since President Trump and his administration have come in. It's been chaotic already. We've seen impacts on government. I'm very concerned that they are pushing us towards a shutdown in about 10 days.

And how united are Democrats on this issue?

Well, I think we want responsible governance. I think shutdowns are terrible and we should be putting funding packages together, but they don't seem interested in that. And frankly, the administration also has to be following the laws that Congress puts in place about how money is used. And they want to kind of make up whether they want to invest in certain programs or not. Elon Musk and Donald Trump kind of want to decide whether they follow Congress' instructions or not. They don't get that option. We only have funding in place till March 14. We need to put appropriations together to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year, in my opinion, and we need to make sure that the administration is going to follow the law that Congress puts in place.

That's what Democrats want to see. That's what Democrats are fighting for. But again, Republicans have the House, the Senate and the White. House, and so they're kind of in charge of finding the path forward, and they seem to be struggling to find a path forward.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.