House GOP says Biden ‘caved’ on ending COVID-19 health emergency
Virginia Aabram
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House Republicans are taking credit after the Biden administration announced it would allow the COVID-19 public health emergency to expire one day before the lower chamber voted on legislation that would end the pandemic declaration.
The White House will end emergency measures on May 11, it said Monday, while the legislation, brought forward by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), would end it immediately.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said President Joe Biden had “caved” to pressure from House Republicans.
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“I am glad to see the White House is following the lead of House Republicans and announcing they plan to finally end the Public Health Emergency and the COVID Emergency Declaration, on the heels of our announcement last week that we will vote this week to immediately end this outdated declaration. Rather than waiting until May 11, the Biden Administration should join us now in immediately ending this declaration,” the congressman said.
Though the bill is expected to pass the House, it is unlikely to clear the Senate and Biden’s desk.
Guthrie echoed Scalise’s remarks, saying he was “glad that my bill finally forced President Biden to act. However, President Biden has taken too long to take action on his statement last September that the pandemic is over.”
“I’m moving forward with my bill to end the COVID-19 public health emergency on the House floor,” Guthrie continued. “The American people have been living under a COVID-19 public health emergency for three years and should not allow President Biden four more months of emergency powers. It’s time to get our country back to normal, restore checks and balances between Congress and the Executive Branch, and rescind President Biden’s emergency powers.”
The White House has responded that ending the emergency too quickly would “sow confusion and chaos.”
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“Tens of millions of Americans could be at risk of abruptly losing their health insurance, and states could be at risk of losing billions of dollars in funding,” it said in a Monday night statement.
House Republicans are working to dismantle all pandemic measures in their first weeks in the majority. They have reopened the Capitol to pre-pandemic public access and eliminated proxy voting, which allowed members to cast votes on behalf of absent colleagues. Along with the Pandemic is Over Act, the House is also poised to pass the Freedom for Health Care Workers Act to remove vaccine mandates for healthcare workers.