Fox News reported earlier this month that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) moved to once again extend the Biden administration’s COVID emergency.
That decision hasn’t gone over well with congressional Republicans, and they’ve put legislation forward to reverse it.
Four bills aim to override COVID emergency declaration
According to One America News (OAN), the House Rules Committee met on Monday to schedule votes on four COVID emergency bills.
One of them was written by Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, who released a statement concerning the bill on January 11.
The first piece of legislation I’ve introduced into the 118th Congress is a joint resolution to terminate the COVID-19 national emergency declaration repeatedly extended by Biden. We must end the Biden Regime’s pandemic powers. Read my full statement here: https://t.co/meNRs7jbEN
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) January 11, 2023
“By any measure, the pandemic in the United States has ended,” Gosar declared. “Even Joe Biden agrees, stating on 60 Minutes last September, that the ‘pandemic is over.'”
Gosar: “Most Americans have returned to a pre-pandemic normalcy”
“So why does Joe Biden continue to demand the COVID-19 national emergency be extended?” he demanded. “The answer is simple, to force Americans to live under extreme measures that deprive us of our freedoms.”
“There is no ongoing COVID-19 emergency to justify the continuation of the national emergency declaration,” Gosar continued, adding, “Cases are down and most Americans have returned to a pre-pandemic normalcy.”
“This hardly sounds like a country under a national emergency which is why I am calling on my colleagues and Mr. Biden to reverse course and move to give the People back their say in government,” he insisted.
Another bill comes from Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer and is called the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems Act (SHOW UP Act).
COVID telework policies said to have “created cumbersome backlogs”
The legislation would require federal agencies to reimplement pre-pandemic policies regarding telework and require employees to resume working at their offices.
“For years, Americans have suffered from the federal government’s detrimental pandemic-era telework policies for federal bureaucrats,” Comer said in a statement earlier this month.
“President Biden’s unnecessary expansion of telework crippled the ability of departments and agencies to fulfill their responsibilities and created cumbersome backlogs,” the conservative lawmaker declared.
“The federal government exists to serve the American people and these substantial delays for basic services are unacceptable,” he said. “I am proud to introduce the SHOW UP Act, which will ensure the federal workforce returns to the office.”