In a letter to the House Speaker and Senate President Friday, Joe Biden extended the national COVID-19 emergency pandemic indefinitely.
QUICK FACTS:
- Joe Biden has extended the National Emergency status of the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Epoch Times.
- Biden sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, notifying her that he planned to extend what would have been the automatic termination of the declaration.
- An end date for the declaration was not given, the president just said in his letter that the declaration “is to continue in effect beyond March 1, 2022,” which is when it would have typically ended.
WHAT BIDEN’S LETTER SAID:
- “The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause significant risk to the public health and safety of the Nation. More than 900,000 people in this Nation have perished from the disease, and it is essential to continue to combat and respond to COVID-19 with the full capacity and capability of the Federal Government,” Biden asserted in his letter.
- “I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020, beginning March 1, 2020, concerning the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, is to continue in effect beyond March 1, 2022,” he wrote.
- “Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Proclamation 9994 concerning the COVID-19 pandemic,” Biden added.
BACKGROUND:
- The United States was put into a state of emergency by former President Joe Biden on March 13, 2020, according to the Federal Emergency Management Association.
- According to FEMA’s website, it was enacted because of the “sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant an emergency declaration for all states, tribes, territories, and the District of Columbia…”
