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Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) has designed and manufactured equipment and systems for critical infrastructure for over 40 years. Made in America is in our genes. We work to keep the lights on at home and around the world.

Idaho exemplifies an environment where American businesses of all sorts thrive. Governor Little and the Idaho congressional delegation understand economic freedom. That freedom empowers us to invest and grow in Idaho.

In 2023, we invested $100 million of company profits and built a state-of-the-art printed circuit board factory in Moscow, Idaho. This plant strengthens our domestic supply chain. We used our own money. Profits fuel our growth, not government subsidies.

SEL is committed to “Made in America.” However, today, the solid foundation we’ve built — and our aspirations to continue to invest in America — are under threat. Ironically, it’s not foreign competition that poses the greatest risk — it’s taxation without representation, in the form of executive-ordered tariffs.

When I started SEL in 1984, every component was made in U.S. Over time, most electronic manufacturing moved offshore, and we now rely on foreign suppliers for many components. Today we pay huge taxes to buy foreign parts, due to Trump’s tariffs.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics analyzes tariff impact. Example: tariffs on consumer goods jumped from 3.6% to 13.5% between January and June — nearly quadrupling this tax.

Tariffs are especially regressive taxes, landing hardest on folks least able to pay. As the Institute explains, inventories of pre-tariff products have temporarily muted some sticker shock. Soon, the burden will inevitably roll downhill to consumers.

This is taxation without representation.

We fought a revolution over that nearly 250 years ago. Our Constitution clearly assigns Congress — not the executive branch — the authority to set tariffs.

White House tariff-making is an executive end-run around Congress, by misusing the IEEPA emergency powers act. Though courts will likely enforce the Constitution on the White House, we must not wait for years of litigation to restore order.

Let’s start today.

Presidents from both parties — including John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan — championed competitive enterprise, open markets and American leadership in the global economy. Kennedy said we need a vibrant free economy to produce the tax revenues the government needs to operate. He understood Congress writes tax law, not the White House. We all benefited.

Trump’s trade war makes America less competitive while raising prices for everyone. SEL and other US manufacturers are being punished, as are all customers and consumers.

For SEL, Trump’s proposed 100% tariff on semiconductors would impose an additional $50 million per year in new taxes.

We had been projecting to pay $100 million of tariffs this year. The proposed 100% tariff pushes the total tax burden up to $150 million, or about half our income.

As a 100% employee-owned company, this amounts to over $20,000 per employee-owner. A significant amount that could be used for increased pay, hiring more employee-owners, developing new products, building more facilities and our profit-sharing extra pay days.

On top of other taxes, Trump’s tariffs alone could amount to a 50% income tax.

Tariffs disincentivize manufacturing and create uncertainty, the opposite of the purported purpose of Trump’s tariffs.

We are delaying new buildings, reducing R&D and prices will rise — handing an advantage to foreign competitors who are eager to take our place.

America faces a fiscal challenge. We should tackle root causes — excessive spending and regulation — rather than papering them over with hidden taxes on families’ grocery carts, utility bills, cars and consumer goods. Tariffs punish producers and consumers, doing little to solve underlying issues.

We ask for the chance to work hard, earn a fair return, and keep building on a fair, level playing field. No special treatment wanted!

Congress should reassert its constitutional authority over tariffs, end taxation without representation, and establish a durable, predictable trade policy that rewards making things in America.

Do that, and companies like SEL and countless others will keep hiring, inventing, investing and manufacturing in the places we call home.

Dr. Edmund O. Schweitzer III is founder of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, a 100% employee-owned U.S. manufacturer that invents, designs and builds digital products and systems to protect power systems worldwide.

Reprinted with permission of the Idaho Statesman, copyright 2025.