Al Ullman

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President Gerald Ford signed the Trade Act of 1974 on January 3, 1975, after the Senate passed it 77-4 and both chambers approved the conference report on December 20, 1974. Section 122 gave the president authority to impose tariffs up to 15% for up to 150 days to address large and serious balance-of-payments deficits, codifying a narrower version of the emergency power Nixon had used in 1971. Senator Russell Long of Louisiana chaired the Finance Committee markup that shaped the bill. The 150-day limit and 15% ceiling were explicit congressional choices to prevent open-ended presidential tariff authority.

Congress enacted the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, establishing the modern federal budget process and creating the budget reconciliation procedure for the first time. The law created the House and Senate Budget Committees, the Congressional Budget Office, and a structured annual timeline requiring Congress to adopt a concurrent budget resolution each spring. The reconciliation provision allowed Congress to direct committees to change spending and revenue levels to comply with the budget resolution, bypassing the Senate filibuster for fiscal legislation.