Republican governors are calling on President Joe Biden to end the COVID-19 national emergency declaration that former President Donald Trump declared in March 2020 to confront the then-new virus outbreak.
"It has been nearly three years since the federal government has declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," the 25 governors said in their letter, reports The Western Journal.
"While the virus will be with us for some time, the emergency phase of the pandemic is behind us."
The governors pointed to Biden's statement in September to CBS' "60 Minutes," when he said the pandemic was over and commented that unlike at the beginning of the pandemic, "we now have the tools and information necessary to help protect our communities from COVID-19."
Further, they said that the Senate already passed a bipartisan resolution in November, by a 61-37 vote, that called for the national emergency to end.
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra in October extended the COVID-19 health emergency an additional 90 days, taking it through Jan. 11, to give federal agencies the authority to expand programs without needing congressional approval, reports CNBC.
There has been no notice, however, that the Biden administration plans to end the public health emergency at that time, so the governors said they are working under the assumption it will be extended another 90 days into April and asked that the emergency be stopped at that time.
They also said the declaration is hurting their states by allowing for larger numbers of people to qualify for Medicaid while having no mechanism for removing people from the lists who have since returned to work, costing the states hundreds of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, about a dozen states, mainly which have Democrats as governors, have kept their emergency orders in place.