Markey Letter on Tariff Refunds for Small Businesses (2026)
- Issuer
- Congressional materials
- Document type
- 2026 03 04 Markey Renews Call To Sba Ranking Member Markey Renews Call For Tariff Refund P
- Date
- 2026-03-04
- Case
- 2026 03 04 Markey Renews Call To Sba Ranking Member Markey Renews Call For Tariff Refund Pro
Summary
A letter dated March 4, 2026 from Edward J. Markey, Ranking Member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, to SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney S. Scott and Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran. The letter cites the Supreme Court's ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the President lacked authority to impose tariffs under IEEPA. It urges a simple and free tariff-refund processing system that prioritizes small business claims and suggests the Automated Commercial Environment could distribute refunds. It asks Chairman Atkins to review investment banks' offers of 20 to 40 cents on the dollar for tariff refund rights. The three-page letter carries nine footnotes.
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Full text
March 4, 2026
The Honorable Kelly Loeffler The Honorable Howard Lutnick
Administrator Secretary
U.S. Small Business Administration U.S. Department of Commerce
409 3rd Street, SW 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20416 Washington, DC 20230
The Honorable Jamieson Greer The Honorable Kristi Noem
Ambassador Secretary
U.S. Trade Representative U.S. Department of Homeland Security
600 17th Street, NW 2801 Nebraska Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20006 Washington, DC 20528
The Honorable Paul S. Atkins The Honorable Rodney S. Scott
Chairman Commissioner
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission U.S. Customs and Border Protection
100 F Street NE 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20549 Washington, DC 20229
Mr. Stephen Miran
Chair
Council of Economic Advisers
1650 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Administrator Loeffler, Secretary Lutnick, Ambassador Greer, Secretary Noem, Chairman
Atkins, Commissioner Scott, and Chair Miran,
Last August, anticipating the Supreme Court’s rejecting President Trump’s unlawful tariffs, I
called upon you to immediately establish and publicize procedures for refunding to small
businesses the money they would be owed. You failed to do so, and now that the Court has
firmly rejected the President’s tariff scheme, those businesses and their customers are left waiting
for relief. At the same time, investment banks are profiteering from the delay, offering cash-
strapped businesses pennies on the dollar to buy up their tariff refund rights. Delaying the
refunds owed is a prescription for more pain inflicted on U.S. companies and their customers. I
therefore again urge you to establish a simple and free tariff-refund processing system that
Page 2
prioritizes claims by small businesses, and to investigate and crack down on those who would
seek to profit at their expense from the unnecessary delay in issuing refunds.
Last week, by a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court firmly ruled that the President lacked the
authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). 1
The Court’s ruling was predictable, coming on the heels of the D.C. District Court, the U.S.
Court of International Trade, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit all rejecting
the legal basis for the President’s imposition of tariffs under IEEPA. 2 The president’s own
lawyers argued to the Federal Circuit that, if the Administration were to lose, businesses that paid
tariffs imposed unlawfully under IEEPA would be entitled to refunds, 3 and subsequently
reiterated the promise to refund unlawfully collected duties, with interest, after the Court of
International Trade ruled against them in May of 2025. 4
Now, however, President Trump is backtracking on the promise to refund money unlawfully
collected from U.S. businesses, suggesting the issue “has to get litigated for the next two years.” 5
Accordingly, Administration lawyers have begun dragging their heels by asking the Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit to remand the case to the Court of International Trade in June. 6
Beyond dragging the repayment process out further, this delay would also impose billions of
dollars in interest payments on the refunds which American taxpayers would be forced to pay.
Large businesses, such as Federal Express, have already sued the federal government for
refunds on tariff costs, 7 but this approach is too time-consuming and cost-prohibitive for small
businesses. We, as a nation, cannot afford our cost crisis to endlessly drag on. Secretary Noem
and Commissioner Scott, there are solutions readily available. For example, the U.S. Customs
Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), which is part of U.S. Customs and Border
1
Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, 607 U.S. ___ (2026).
2
Doug Palmer, Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein, Federal court strikes down Trump’s tariffs on countries around the
world, Politico (May 28, 2025), https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/28/federal-court-strikes-down-trumps-
april-2-tariffs-00373843; Doug Palmer & Kyle Cheney, Second federal court rules against Trump's tariffs, Politico
(May 29, 2025), https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/29/second-federal-court-rules-against-trumps-tariffs-
00374377; Dietrich Knauth, Nate Raymond & Tom Hals, Most Trump tariffs are not legal, US appeals court rules,
Reuters (Aug. 29, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/most-trump-tariffs-are-not-legal-us-appeals-
court-rules-2025-08-30/.
3
Reply brief for Appellants at 30, 33, V.O.S. Selections, Inc. et al. v. Trump, Nos. 2025-1812, -1813, U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit (July 18, 2025),
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105/gov.uscourts.cafc.23105.147.0.pdf.
4
Ari Hawkins, White House faces thousands of lawsuits as it tries to slow-walk tariff refunds, Politico (March 3,
2026), https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/02/businesses-ready-battle-white-house-tariff-refunds-00808048.
5
Megan Messerly and Daniel Desrochers, Trump’s next tariff fight: Keeping the money, Politico (Feb. 26, 2026),
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/26/trumps-next-tariff-fight-keeping-the-money-00799774.
6
Scott Lincicome, Nathan Miller, and Alfredo Carrillo Obregon. Tariff Refund Delays Could Cost Taxpayers $700
Million a Month, Cato Institute (March 2, 2026), Tariff Refund Delays Could Cost Taxpayers $700 Million a Month
| Cato at Liberty Blog.
7
Dan Mangan, FedEx sues for refund of Trump tariffs, days after Supreme Court ruling, CNBC (Feb. 24, 2026),
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/23/fedex-trump-trade-tariffs-refunds-supreme-court-lawsuit.html.
Page 3
Protection, initially collected the tariffs and could be repurposed to automatically distribute
refunds. I implore you to move with the speed this hardship for our nation’s small businesses
deserves, and to find and implement a workable solution.
Predictably, where consumers and Main Street suffer, Wall Street sees a potential financial
windfall. According to the Wall Street Journal, investment banks are offering businesses between
20 to 40 cents on the dollar to buy up tariff refund rights. 8 Over time, small businesses will be
disproportionately tempted to take Wall Street up on these offers. Large businesses can afford the
massive legal fees associated with years-long cases before the Court of International Trade; small
businesses cannot.
Chairman Atkins, I ask that you immediately review this profiteering by Wall Street firms,
and, where applicable, redistribute any ill-gotten gains back to the small businesses who paid the
illegal tariffs in the first place. Main Street had no choice but to comply with the President
Trump’s tariff scheme. It is unconscionable that, as soon as the Supreme Court ruled the tariffs
unlawful, investment banks swooped in to exploit the Administration’s foot-dragging in
complying with the law. The Trump administration’s dithering on tariff refunds is siphoning the
hard-won earnings of American small businesses into Wall Street coffers while keeping prices
for consumers elevated. This has to stop.
When I wrote to you last August, I warned that your failure to prepare to pay refunds “would
go down as a historic act of executive malpractice, making what would already be a major,
economy-wide disruption exponentially worse.” 9 This is now the reality we face. You must act
with the utmost urgency to refund America’s small businesses, and help lower consumer prices,
rather than allow big banks to prey on Main Street.
Sincerely,
__________________________
Edward J. Markey
Ranking Member, Committee on Small
Business and Entrepreneurship
8
Caitlin McCabe, Wall Street Traders Are Pouncing on the Tariff Refund Chaos, Wall St. J. (Feb. 25, 2026),
https://www.wsj.com/finance/wall-street-traders-are-pouncing-on-the-tariff-refund-chaos-
d0144703?st=T1trqz&reflink=article_email_share.
9
Press Release, U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Ranking Member Markey Calls
on Trump Administration to Prepare Tariff Refund Plan for Small Businesses (Aug. 21, 2025),
https://www.sbc.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2025/8/ranking-member-markey-calls-on-trump-administration-to-
prepare-tariff-refund-plan-for-small-businesses.
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