Josh Hawley bill would give millions of Americans $600 each from tariff revenue

Sen. Josh Hawley rolled out a new bill late Monday to give $600 in tariff rebates to millions of American workers and families, days after President Trump floated the idea.

“Americans deserve a tax rebate after four years of Biden policies that have devastated families’ savings and livelihoods,” Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a statement.

“Like President Trump proposed, my legislation would allow hard-working Americans to benefit from the wealth that Trump’s tariffs are returning to this country.”

The Republican’s American Worker Rebate Act would provide at least $600 to each adult and dependent child, with higher payments possible if tariff revenue exceeds projections for the year.

Married couples who file taxes jointly and make more than $150,000 per year combined, heads of households who make more than $112,500 per year and individuals earning more than $75,000 per year will see their rebates reduced by 5%.

Tariff revenue has topped $113 billion so far in fiscal year 2025, and the US posted a budget surplus for June as tariff revenue soared to $27 billion.

Both Trump himself and administration officials like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have claimed tariff revenue can be used to quickly pay down the federal deficit, which clocked in at $1.8 trillion last fiscal year.

However, the president suggested to reporters as he left the White House for Scotland Friday that his team was “thinking about a little rebate.”

“The big thing we want to do is pay down debt,” Trump said at the time. “But we’re thinking about a rebate.”

Hawley’s bill would dish out money under similar parameters to COVID-19 relief Congress passed beginning in 2020.

The first payments, of $1,200 to individuals making up to $75,000 and $2,400 to couples making up to $150,000, were issued in March 2020. A second round of payments, of $600 to individuals and $1,200 to couples under those thresholds, was doled out in December 2020. The third and final payment, of up to $1,400 to individuals and $2,800 to couples, was approved as part of the Biden-era American Rescue Plan in March 2021.

Most conservatives have insisted that the administration focus on reducing the deficit and have warned about the inflationary effect of handing out more spending money while trying to keep prices down.

“While it’s always politically advantageous to hand out money to constituents, the fact is the federal government has no money to give at this point,” Heritage Foundation chief economist EJ Antoni told The Post Friday in response to Trump’s initial rebate float.

“When the annual deficit is over $1 trillion, the priority has to be getting that down, not giving the Treasury another outlay.”