President Joe Biden signed a Republican-led bill Monday ending the COVID-19 national emergency.
The measure passed the Senate for the third time in March in a vote of 68-23, making its way to the president’s desk. At the time, a White House official reportedly stated that Biden would sign the bill despite being “strongly” in opposition.
The bill consists of a sole sentence directing the national COVID-19 emergency declared on March 13, 2020, to be “terminated.”
One of the bill’s main sponsors, Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, called on Biden to end the “authoritarian” emergency powers instated at the beginning of the pandemic.
WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 23: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccines in the South Court Auditorium at the White House complex on August 23, 2021 in Washington, DC. On Monday morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for people 16 and older, making it the first vaccine to move beyond emergency use status in the U.S. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“Emergency powers are given to the Executive branch, so the Commander in Chief has the flexibility to quickly act in the event of a crisis. That declaration was appropriate in 2020, but it’s time for the proper constitutional checks and balances to be restored; it’s time to end any and all authoritarian control and unilateral spending decisions without Congressional consent,” Marshall said. (RELATED: Biden Sets Date To End COVID Emergency)
The White House had previously set its own date to end the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11.