Biden signs bill to terminate the national COVID emergency after THREE YEARS
Biden signs bill to end national COVID emergency after THREE YEARS: President moves closer to ending final pandemic restrictions by signing Republican-backed legislation
- The legislation is a simple one-line measure that says the state of national emergency declared on March 13, 2020 is “hereby terminated”
- At the same time, the White House announced it is allocating $5 billion to create ‘next generation’ Covid-19 vaccines
President Biden on Monday signed a Republican-led measure ending the national Covid-19 emergency after more than three years.
The White House already had plans of its own to phase out the emergency declaration by May 11, but the bill pushed that timeline back by about a month.
Despite strongly objecting to the bill earlier this year, Biden announced in March that he would not veto the legislation. It passed the Senate 68 to 23.
President Biden on Monday signed a Republican-led measure ending the national Covid-19 emergency after more than three years
The legislation is a simple one-line measure that says the state of national emergency declared on March 13, 2020 is “hereby terminated.”
At the same time as Biden signed the bill into law, the White House announced it is committing $5 billion to create “next generation” Covid-19 vaccines. The funding will come from money set aside by the Department of Health and Human Services for Covid testing and personal protective equipment.
Former President Trump first declared a national emergency in March to free up federal funding for vaccines and testing centers.
It is the third bill the president has signed into law since Republicans won a majority in the House — behind a GOP-led bill that repeals criminal justice reform in Washington, D.C. and one that ordered the intelligence community to provide information about the origins of Covid. -19 release.
The bill signed into law Monday was one of several early bills brought forward by the new House GOP at the beginning of the year.
The government warned at the time that the proposal would cause chaos.
More than 197 House Democrats voted against.
“An abrupt end to states of emergency would cause great chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system — for states, for hospitals and doctors’ offices, and most importantly for tens of millions of Americans,” the government said in a statement. formal statement of administrative policy.
It was the second time Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against a bill to rally behind what they believed the president’s stance was only for him to change course. House Democrats voted outright against the D.C. crime bill, after which Biden said he would not veto it, giving Senate Democrats cover to vote in favor of the bill.