McMorris Rodgers calls for an end to COVID public health emergency declaration

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) joined one of her Republican colleagues in denouncing an expected move by the Biden administration to extend the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) beyond the midterm elections in November.

“President Biden lacks any good justification to keep these emergency powers with no provided plan to unwind them,” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers and U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) in an Aug. 12 joint statement. “His administration has broken people’s trust with heavy-handed mandates, politically influenced school closures, and record-high inflation caused by his $2 trillion spending package.” 

The nearly two-and-a-half year-long state of emergency declaration could be extended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) potentially into early 2023 — pushing the nation into its fourth calendar year under a COVID-19 PHE, according to Politico.

The deadline for deciding whether to let the declaration continue was on Monday. Rep. McMorris Rodgers, ranking member of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Guthrie said in their joint statement that they oppose extending the COVID-19 PHE beyond the Aug. 15 deadline.

“The country is in a very different place as we approach the fourth anniversary of the first cases of COVID-19,” they said, noting that concerns also have been raised about “the questionable and lack of leadership” from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

“For many months, we’ve been calling on President Biden and Secretary Becerra to provide a detailed plan to unwind the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the congressmen. “To date, they have let these PHE deadlines repeatedly come and go without providing this plan. It is way past time, especially as they also just declared another PHE because of their slow response and failure to get the monkeypox outbreak under control.”

Rep. McMorris Rodgers and her colleague also advised that Biden “get to work and take seriously the need to rebuild trust and confidence in America’s public health agencies,” which they said, “starts with being completely transparent to Congress, providing the detailed plan we’ve been asking for, and reining in the reckless spending and federal command and control that is hurting people’s quality of life.”