It appears the state of national emergency brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic will be coming to an end, a little over three years after it began.
Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill aimed at ending the national emergency by a bipartisan 68-23 vote. Having already made it through the House, it now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk.
Biden has indicated that he will sign the bill even though he “strongly opposes” it.
“He will sign it, and the administration will continue working with agencies to wind down the national emergency with as much notice as possible to Americans who could potentially be impacted,” a White House official told CNN.
The Biden administration was already implementing its own ramp-down of the emergency declarations with a target end date of May 11, 2023.
Ending the state of emergency will remove much of the flexibility the federal government had to aid in the funding of COVID prevention measures at the state level through Medicaid and other public health institutions.
It will also effectively repeal the Title 42 regulations at the nation’s southern border.
The pandemic-induced state of national emergency began during President Donald Trump’s final year in office on March 13, 2020, and reached its three-year anniversary two weeks ago.
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