Biden tells Congress he’ll end COVID-19 emergencies on May 11

President Biden told Congress on Monday that his administration will end twin emergencies related to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 11, 2023, more than three years after they were enacted. 

The COVID-19 national emergency is set to expire on March 1, while the public health emergency (PHE) will expire on April 11. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) wrote in a Statement of Administration Policy that Biden will extend both emergencies to May 11, at which point they will expire. 

“An abrupt end to the emergency declarations would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system — for states, for hospitals and doctors’ offices, and, most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans,” the OMB wrote. 

The statement came in response to two resolutions being brought to the House floor by Republicans this week that call for an immediate end to the emergencies. 

Letting the emergencies expire would also lift Title 42 immediately, which the OMB said Monday would “result in a substantial additional inflow of migrants at the Southwest border.” 

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The Biden administration has been trying to terminate Title 42, which the Trump administration put in place in March 2020 to allow immigration officials to quickly expel migrants on public health grounds. The Supreme Court temporarily halted Title 42’s termination last month, allowing the policy to remain in place until the court hears a challenge from Republican-led states.

A spokesperson for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., a sponsor of one of the resolutions that would bring an immediate end to the public health emergency, contested Monday that Title 42 is a separate authority. 

“Any decision to end Title 42 is not tied to the PHE,” Rodgers’ office said. “President Biden alone will be responsible for the decision to end Title 42.”

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Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who introduced a bill with 51 co-sponsors to end the emergency immediately, said the House will go ahead with the vote on Wednesday. 

“There is no reason to wait. There is no reason to trust the Biden Regime,” Gosar tweeted. 

More than 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19 over the past three years, according to the CDC, but cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have been lower this winter than in 2021 and 2020. 

 

President Biden told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in September that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. 

“The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it, but the pandemic is over,” Biden said in a televised interview. 

Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report.