Only 3 years too late.
President Biden did something today that I approve of: signed a bipartisan bill to end the COVID emergency that President Trump had declared a little over 3 years ago. The bill passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 68-23.
Here’s a summary of the bill, Senate Joint Resolution 38:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, pursuant to section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622), the national emergency declared by the finding of the President on March 13, 2020, in Proclamation 9994 (85 Fed. Reg. 15337) is hereby terminated.
Actually, that’s not the summary. That’s the whole thing. Congratulations to Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) for pushing this. It’s virtually always bad to give a President emergency powers.
Here’s how Senators voted. 21 Democratic Senators and 2 Independents (King and Sinema) joined 45 Republicans in a Yes vote. No Republicans voted against but 4 Republicans (Barasso, Blackburn, Hagerty, and McConnell) refrained from voting.
READER COMMENTS
Vivian Darkbloom
Apr 11 2023 at 3:56am
As I believe I argued here early on during the “Covid Emergency”, the Emergency Powers Act (as well as similar state-level acts) should be amended to more closely resemble the War Powers Resolution. While the latter is too weak and has not been fully effective, it requires that Congress affirmatively approve a continuation of military action (after 60 days) while a declaration of emergency continues to be effective until it is terminated by Congress. Such extraordinary executive powers need to have broader political support and be subject to more legislative checks.
It is amazing how many declarations of emergency remain in effect indefinitely.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-31-national-emergencies-effect-years/story?id=60294693
Mark Bahner
Apr 11 2023 at 4:28pm
The classic leadership of Mitch McConnell! 😉
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