HO CHI MINH CITY –
US President Joe Biden will not veto a Republican-led measure aimed at ending the national COVID-19 emergency, despite expressing strong opposition against it earlier this year, aiming to ensure the bill will easily become law.
It marks the second time in the new Congress that the Biden administration has signaled its opposition to a Republican measure, lobbying most Democrats in Congress to vote against it, only to do so. soften his stance and let the law eventually become the law.
Just a few weeks ago, Biden stunned many Democrats by refusing to veto a Republican-led bill to amend the new criminal code for the District of Columbia that he and others in his party’s party had in mind. the president objected, allowing the Republican Party to step up the fight against crime. local government to become law.
Republicans celebrated Wednesday’s turn of events as a sign that their new-found influence in Washington was being divided, while Democrats quietly complained that the Biden administration has changed its position.
But the White House stood firm, and the Senate last passed it 68-23, moving the bill to Biden’s desk.
A White House official said when House Republicans first prepared to vote on the bill at the start of the year, they should have lifted the national emergency declaration over the coronavirus pandemic in February.
But now, the White House’s own plan to ease the national COVID-19 emergency on May 11 is much closer.
The president remains strongly opposed to the law, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. But if the bill gets to Biden’s desk, he will sign it, the official said.
Before the vote, Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kan., one of the bill’s main sponsors, said he hoped “that the rumors are true – that the president will eventually sign this legislation. “
The law is a simple one-line measure stating that a national emergency was declared on March 13, 2020, “therefore to cease.”
It comes from one of the more conservative Republicans in the House, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, and is based on Republican-led opposition to mask-wearing, lockdown and other mandates. Other precautions are in place to prevent the spread of the virus during a pandemic. It was one of the original bills that the new House GOP introduced earlier in the year.
At the time, the authorities warned the proposal would cause chaos. More than 197 House Democrats voted against it.
“The abrupt end of emergency declarations will create widespread chaos and instability throughout the health care system – for states, hospitals and doctors’ offices, and most importantly, is for tens of millions of Americans,” the administration said in a statement. an official statement of administrative policy.
In the days leading up to the House vote, the Biden administration announced a plan to reduce the state of emergency on May 11, three years after the virus broke out.
The administration’s announcement means the federal coronavirus response will be treated as an endemic threat to public health that can be managed through normal authorities, rather than state epidemic.
Just weeks ago, Biden signed another Republican-led bill into law that would nullify the District of Columbia’s penal code amendment. The administration has previously said it opposes the bill.
On Wednesday, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee voted to reject the police reform package passed by the DC Council.
——
Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
