You might associate the phrase “The pandemic has ended” with a Republican official. However, Joe Biden declared it on 60 minutes last September. Although we don’t always agree on everything, I can only agree with President Biden in this rare case. The Covid-19 pandemic in America has ended, by any measure.
This is why I offered legislation to end the Covid-19 national crisis and reflect the sentiments across the country. The pandemic is over. This is the same resolution that I presented during the 117th Congress session. Nancy Pelosi ignored it. (Actually, it was not ignored at all, but then-Speaker Pelosi deliberately changed rules of the House in order to block my resolution from being taken into consideration.
In 1974, the National Emergencies Act (NEA), was passed to limit presidential emergency powers. These powers are activated only when a formal emergency has been declared. Trump declared a national emergency regarding Covid-19 on March 13, 2020. To give the executive branch the flexibility to respond to various crises, emergency powers were established.
Today, President Biden has more than 120 emergency powers available under the Covid-19 National Emergency Declaration. These include the power to draft Americans without consent and barricade America’s Capitol. The Public Health Service is now under military control. Joe Biden used the national emergency powers even to justify his fraudulent student loan forgiveness program. He claimed that the Covid-19 pandemic had created hardships that made it impossible to repay college loans. The courts ruled Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plot unconstitutional. However, this was just weeks after his illegal use of emergency declarations powers earned him some political points.
Since then, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden have repeatedly blocked discussion about the merits the extended declaration. This is required by law. The NEA provides that Congress must review the termination of national emergency. This requires that Congress meet every six months and every six months thereafter to discuss a resolution to terminate the emergency. Unfortunately, instead of debating and voting on the termination of the emergency declaration, Speaker Pelosi changed rules of the whole House of Representatives more than once to stop this from happening. This hindered Congress’s ability, as a Constitutional body, to check the executive branch’s powers. Joe Biden has therefore extended the Covid-19 national crisis through February 2023.
A free country cannot make emergency declarations. Our government must be capable of acting in an emergency to protect citizens and not to encumber unconstitutional powers that could threaten our freedoms. The NEA outlines a process by which the president can declare an emergency and respond to it with temporary statutory powers, while Congress has the responsibility to oversee executive action.
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In March 2020, President Trump declared a national crisis. Nearly three years later, the declaration is still in effect. Despite federal law requiring consideration of the termination, there has been no oversight from Congress. The pandemic in the United States is over and most Americans are back to pre-pandemic normalcy. Joe Biden continues to insist that the Covid-19 national emergency be extended. It is because it forces Americans to live in extreme conditions that rob us of our freedoms.
The unwillingness of President Biden to give up power is a sign of a dictator, and Nancy Pelosi’s attempts to cover this make her complicit. With a new Republican majority in the House and better House rules, Congressmen and the millions of Americans that they represent will have the opportunity to weigh in on whether special government authority should be continued.
Last year, President Biden declared that “the pandemic was over.” The cases are down and America is now open again. This doesn’t sound like a country in national emergency. I urge President Joe Biden and my colleagues to reverse their course and give the American people back control of government. My legislation has been passed twice by the Senate. The second consideration received 61 “yes” votes. This indicates that this action has bipartisan support from a dozen Democratic senators. Now that Republicans are in control, I am confident that my resolution will be on the House’s floor soon.
