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House Approves Bill to End COVID-19 Public Health Emergency After Biden Set Expiration for May
Despite President Joe Biden’s announcement that the emergency declarations related to COVID-19 would end in May, House Republicans voted to immediately end the public health emergency.By Kaia Hubbard
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Jan. 31, 2023, at 5:52 p.m.
House Approves ‘Pandemic Is Over’ Bill
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House Republicans on Tuesday approved a measure to end the COVID-19 public health emergency, despite the announcement one day earlier that President Joe Biden would end the emergency declarations in a matter of months.
After lengthy debate where lawmakers at times disagreed over basic facts about the virus and vaccinations, Republicans voted as a bloc to end the emergency declaration, along with another measure that would end the vaccine requirement for health care workers in certain facilities, as the GOP began leaning into its pandemic-related policy platform this week, despite dim prospects for the legislation in the Senate.
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EXPLAINER:
The End of COVID Emergencies ]
“Today, the Republican majority begins the long process of reversing the policy failures of President Biden and the previous Democrat majority,” Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas said on the House floor on Tuesday. “We are dismantling the COVID surveillance state.”
The public health emergency was first put in place by the Trump administration in 2020 and along with other emergency declarations, has given the federal government broad authority to expand health care services, while helping to get COVID-19 treatments and vaccines authorized at record speeds. On Monday, the Biden administration gave notice to Congress that it plans to let the emergency declarations expire on May 11.
But while Democrats and Republicans seemed to be in agreement that the emergency declaration should come to an end, they disagreed on the timeline.
Democrats were adamant that the legislation to end the public health emergency was rushed and that additional time would allow for a useful adjustment period. Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey argued that Biden’s timeline would allow the nation to “responsibly” wind down COVID-19 programs.
“A pandemic of this magnitude cannot be unwound overnight,” Pallone said. “We cannot flip a switch and make COVID-19 end with a snap of a finger.”
But Republicans argued that Biden’s timeline was arbitrary, criticizing the president for claiming earlier this year that the pandemic was over, while keeping the emergency declarations in place.
“Rather than waiting until May 11, the Biden Administration should join us now in immediately ending this declaration,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said in a statement. “House Republicans are making it clear that the days of the Biden Administration being able to hide behind COVID to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on their unrelated, radical agenda are over.”
But the GOP seemed to encounter a sticking point over Title 42, a public health policy that allows border agents to quickly expel migrants due to the threat of COVID-19. According to the White House, terminating the public health emergency would also bring an end to the controversial immigration policy, which the administration has attempted to end, while Republicans have rallied behind its continuation.
Even so, Republicans argued that the legislation approved on Tuesday would not bring an end to Title 42. Democrats were quick to point to an incongruence in their stance toward ending the public health emergency and preventing immigration on public health grounds.
“While my colleagues are saying that there is no need for a public health emergency, they want to keep Title 42 at the border because of its public health emergency implications,” Rep. Lou Correa, a California Democrat, said. “If you truly believe the pandemic is over, then you can’t say that Title 42 is still needed at the border because of a healthcare crisis.”
The sponsor of the bill, dubbed the “Pandemic Is Over Act,” responded by arguing that “we're not conceding that COVID-19 is over in this country.”
“We certainly don't want it coming across our southern border,” GOP Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky said. “So we support keeping Title 42 in place.”
The bill will now head to the Senate where it is unlikely to pass in the Democratic-led body.
