McCarthy sets up votes to dismantle Biden’s COVID emergency: ‘The pandemic is over’

House Republicans will hold a series of votes next week aimed at dismantling the COVID emergency that was originally declared by the Trump administration but has been extended for nearly three years under the Biden administration.

The House Rules Committee, which takes direction from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the scheduling of legislation, will meet Monday to set up floor votes on four pieces of legislation that would eliminate the emergencies that have been maintained by the Biden administration, even though President Biden himself said last year that “the pandemic is over.”

One of those bills is a resolution from Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., which states simply that the national emergency related to COVID is “hereby terminated.”

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, left, is challenging President Biden’s extension of the COVID emergency in a series of votes next week.
(Photo by Drew Angerer | JIM WATSON/AFP Getty Images)

“There is no ongoing COVID-19 emergency to justify the continuation of the national emergency declaration,” Gosar said when he introduced the measure. “Cases are down and most Americans have returned to a pre-pandemic normalcy. This hardly sounds like a country under a national emergency which is why I am calling on my colleagues and Mr. Biden to reverse course and move to give the People back their say in government.”

The second bill is the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems Act, or the SHOW UP Act. Under this bill from Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., all federal agencies would be required to insist on the return of federal workers to their offices and restore the telework policies that were in place before the COVID pandemic.

Agencies would also be required to assess how much the massive expansion of telework affected the ability of federal workers to do their jobs.

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Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., will preside over the Rules Committee next week when it takes up legislation to end the COVID emergency.

“President Biden’s unnecessary expansion of telework crippled the ability of departments and agencies to fulfill their responsibilities and created cumbersome backlogs,” Comer said this month. “The federal government exists to serve the American people and these substantial delays for basic services are unacceptable.”

The third bill is the Pandemic is Over Act, from Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. That bill holds that the public health emergency declared by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Jan. 31, 2020, is terminated.

“It is long overdue for President Biden to end the COVID-19 public health emergency and relinquish the emergency powers that he just renewed again,” Guthrie said last week. “President Biden’s inaction and lack of transparency on this are unacceptable.”

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President Biden’s extension of the COVID emergency is being challenged by the House.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

House lawmakers will also take up the Freedom for Health Care Workers Act, from Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., which prohibits HHS from implementing its regulation that requires federal healthcare workers to be vaccinated.

“No American should ever be forced to choose between the COVID shot or losing their livelihood,” Duncan said this week. “Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate is unscientific, un-American, and deeply damaging to healthcare workers as we already face a nationwide staff shortage.”

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All four bills are expected to pass the GOP-led House, but then face significant opposition from the Democrat-led Senate.