Covid-19 National Emergency Declared Over by President Biden

President Biden issued a resolution to end the national emergency over COVID-19 that he enacted in March 2020.

The measure, which had been sponsored by the Republican Party in March, passed the Senate, although Biden expressed that he opposed declaring the end of the national emergency. However, according to the NBC report, Biden assured him that he would not veto the measure.

The White House communicated in late January that Biden planned to end the national public health emergency for COVID-19 on May 11.

With the enactment of the resolution, the end of the national emergency was moved up a month; however, the public health emergency continued through May.

“As Congress voted to end the National Emergency ahead of schedule, the administration has been working to expedite its liquidation and provide as much notification as possible to potentially affected individuals,” said a White House official.

The official also communicated that the country was at a different point than January.

The end of the health emergency

The resolution will end waivers for federal health programs, such as Medicaid, CHIP, and Medicare, although the impact will likely not be as broad as that of the public health emergency.

“There are only a limited number of flexibilities tied to the national emergency declaration, such as waivers of some state requirements for Medicaid providers,” Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Hill in March.

“It is also likely that states that use such flexibilities have already ended them or are preparing to do so, given the May 11 date. The bottom line is that the public is unlikely to experience noticeable changes due to the finalization of this statement a month before PHE”.

NBC News also noted that several of the affected programs would include mortgage forbearance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This allowed homeowners with government loans to temporarily suspend mortgage payments because of health emergencies.

This will also affect the Department of Veterans Affairs’ reduction of eligibility verification requirements when applying for caregiver assistance.

The end of the public health emergency could have a greater impact, as could the immigration program, known as Title 42.