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Congress will likely exert more authority over US trade policy if the White House doesn’t demonstrate “significant progress” in the ongoing tariff negotiations with dozens of countries in the coming weeks, New York Republican Representative Mike Lawler says.

“If they can make significant progress over the next 30-plus days, then I think a lot of this will settle down,” Lawler said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “If this flares up again, then I think you would likely see Congress step in.”

Congress has largely ceded much of the tariff negotiations to President Donald Trump and his economic team, but Lawler’s comments demonstrate growing concerns among Republicans — especially politically vulnerable members representing swing districts like his — that a prolonged trade war could raise consumer prices and dampen economic activity as uncertainty festers.

Trump’s tariffs, including a 10% levy on most imports and a 145% duty on Chinese goods — have shaken markets and led economists to highlight the risk of a US-led recession.

The International Monetary Fund this week warned of slower economic growth as a result — even after Trump called for a 90-day pause on country-specific tariffs on roughly 60 trading partners.

Trump has been eager to announce progress on trade deals, but details about the talks have been scant as the end of the 90-day pause in July draws closer. The president said in an interview with Time magazine published Friday that he thinks the trade deals will wrap up in the next three to four weeks.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that the US and South Korea could reach an “agreement of understanding” on a deal as soon as next week. The White House has also declared there’s been progress with Japan and India.

“I think they need to get those agreements done a lot quicker than 90 days,” Lawler said Thursday. He added that he and other congressional Republicans have spoken with White House officials about their concerns, although he believes Trump’s tariffs are an effective negotiating tool in the short-term.

Full trade agreements traditionally take years to conclude, and the White House is likely to reach deals that are far more limited in scope, or leave pivotal details still to be settled before the deadline for Trump’s higher tariffs to snap back into place.

Lawler’s district, which includes suburbs north of New York City, favored Kamala Harris over Trump in last year’s presidential election. He occasionally differs with the president, including over US assistance to Ukraine and proposed cutbacks to Head Start and programs for 9/11 first responders.

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He said that he’s not in favor of new taxes, but a Republican proposal to levy income on millionaires at a 40% rate would generate about $420 billion in revenue, which would help cover his top legislative objective: raising the cap on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT. Lawler said that Trump has made lifting the SALT cap above the current $10,000 one of his own tax priorities.

“I think he would be in favor even of eliminating the cap,” Lawler said of Trump. “All of it is a math equation.”

A senior White House official said Trump is reviewing a wide-range of tax policies and is most focused on ideas that help create good-paying jobs and deliver cuts to the working and middle class.

The president remarked earlier this week that a higher tax rate on millionaires would prompt the country’s richest people to leave the country. He also told Time magazine that he loves “the concept” of a tax on the wealthy to “take care of the middle class,” but worries about the political risks of new levies.