WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate has passed a bill to end the national Covid-19 emergency declared by President Trump back on on March 13, 2020. The final vote was bipartisan, 68-23. The joint resolution now goes to Joe Biden’s desk.
A White House official said in a statement to news media that while the President “strongly opposes” the bill, the administration is already winding down the emergency by May 11, the date previously announced for the end of the authority. Still, the official noted, if the Senate passed the measure and it heads to Biden’s desk, “he will sign it, and the administration will continue working with agencies to wind down the national emergency with as much notice as possible to Americans who could potentially be impacted.”
House Democrats largely voted against the bill when it was brought to the floor in February except for 11 Democrats who joined Republicans to support it. A separate White House official noted that the Senate vote comes after several weeks when the Biden administration has had time to accelerate its wind-down efforts – and just a little over a month before they’d already announced that the emergency would end.
SEN. PETE RICKETTS COMMENTS
U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) was quick to release a statement after voting to end the federal emergency declaration for the COVID-19 pandemic currently in effect under the National Emergencies Act (NEA):
“It makes absolutely no sense that the Biden administration still needs these emergency powers when President Biden himself declared the ‘pandemic is over’ last year. When I was Governor, we trusted our people, kept schools and businesses open, and were named the nation’s best state for pandemic response. In Nebraska, we ended our state emergency nearly two years ago. It’s time the Biden administration does the same.”
