The Biden administration's announcement it will end the COVID-19 public health emergency May 11 raises many questions about its other policies amid Republican criticism the president has used the pandemic to extend his authority.
Perhaps the biggest question surrounds President Joe Biden's student loan cancellation policy and the related student loan pause, since both rest legally on the existence of a COVID-19 national emergency, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.
The $500 billion cancellation program will be heard before the Supreme Court on Feb. 28, and the pause is scheduled to last until June 30, which is almost two months longer than the public health emergency used to justify it, according to the Examiner.
Bob Moffit, a health and welfare policy fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the loan issue is "a classic example of Biden overreaching and going beyond his statutory authority. He's using the pandemic as a pretext for a policy that is unrelated to public health."
Other issues that will apparently be problematic for the administration with the formal ending of the pandemic for the federal government include vaccine mandates, testing requirements, and thousands of federal employees who continue to work from home even as private companies bring back their employees to work in person.
Regarding the federal mask mandate, the administration is currently involved in a legal battle over its ability to reimpose it after the mandate was struck down by a judge last April, and it is unclear what effect the end of the public health emergency will have on this issue.
Also upcoming in April, states will be permitted to start removing ineligible people from Medicaid, and Pfizer and Moderna have already said they are considering selling their COVID-19 vaccines in the range of $110 to $130 per dose once the transition to the commercial marketplace is complete, the Examiner reported.