PROVIDENCE – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is facing heat after his absence on Capitol Hill Wednesday left the US Senate one vote away from passing a joint resolution aimed at rebuking President Trump’s controversial tariff agenda.
Senators tied 49-49 on a vote on the joint resolution to terminate “the national emergency declared to impose global tariffs,’’ after three Republicans voted in favor alongside Democrats, including Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
The measure was shot down in a subsequent vote after Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote against the resolution.
The only two senators who did not vote were Whitehouse, a Democrat, and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. Similar to bills, joint resolutions can become law if passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the president.
At the time of the vote, Whitehouse was heading back to the United States after attending the “Our Ocean Conference’’ in South Korea, according to posts he made on the social media.
Since 2014, thousands of global leaders have met at the conference to discuss actions for ocean sustainability.
“The Our Ocean summit was important for Rhode Island and climate issues, and for preserving American leadership in the world,’’ Whitehouse said in a statement to the Globe on Thursday afternoon. “Ocean and climate problems are grave and serious and ignored. There would have been zero US presence had I not attended.
“I informed leadership I would be traveling on official business,’’ the statement continued. “I would have voted against Trump’s harmful tariffs, and obviously I wish the vote hadn’t been called while I was away.’’
Whitehouse also lamented he was the only sitting US leader at this year’s summit, which he said is “usually attended by a dozen or more senior US officials,’’ in a post on X on Wednesday.
“USA AWOL,’’ he wrote.
Commenters online, however, saw some irony in the senator’s remarks.
“YOU were AWOL and sank a bill we needed,’’ wrote one X user, @BKCaliNative. “Stay there.’’
Asked about Whitehouse’s absence, Meaghan McCabe, a spokesperson for the senator, wrote in an email to the Globe on Thursday morning that Whitehouse was on his way back from the summit “where he was the sole American official.’’
“The Senator expressed America’s continued support for the Blue Economy, climate solutions, fisheries, and maritime security, even as the Trump administration cedes leadership on the oceans to the rest of the world,’’ McCabe wrote.
Wednesday’s vote arrived weeks after the Senate approved a resolution that would have blocked Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on Canada.
Democrats intended the latest resolution as a means to try to place a check on Trump and to get Republicans on the record about the president’s consequential tariff policies.
“The Senate cannot be an idle spectator in the tariff madness,’’ said Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a lead sponsor of the resolution.
Co-sponsors of the resolution included Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Peter Welch of Vermont, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky also co-sponsored the measure.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@ globe.com.
