The House of Representatives has passed Rep. Paul Gosar’s (R-Ariz.) House Joint Resolution 7, which would end the coronavirus national emergency proclaimed almost three years ago at the start of the pandemic.
“Time’s up,” Gosar said in a Feb. 1 interview with The Epoch Times. “Most of America has moved on.
“It’s that the government hasn’t under Joe Biden,” he said.
The legislation passed 229 to 197; 218 Republicans voted for it, while 197 Democrats voted against it. In addition, 11 Democrats voted for it.
At less than sixty words, the resolution is the latest short piece of legislation considered by the Republican-controlled House.
The House kicked off the 118th Congress by passing a similarly brief bill restricting the sale of petroleum products from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to China or any entities controlled by the Chinese Communist Party–a bill that secured votes from 113 Democrats.
The Gosar resolution reached the House floor just one day after that chamber passed the “Pandemic Is Over Act.” The legislation derives its name from Biden’s September 2022 statement on 60 Minutes that “the pandemic is over.”
Unlike Gosar’s resolution, which targets Biden’s March 2020 national emergency, the “Pandemic is Over Act” would end Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar’s January 2020 declaration of a public health emergency because of the novel coronavirus.
The HHS Secretary has had to renew that public health emergency every ninety days. Current HHS Secretary Javier Becerra renewed it again just weeks ago, on Jan. 11, 2023.
Trump proclaimed a national emergency in March 2020. Biden renewed it in 2022.
In a floor speech, Gosar blasted previous House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for blocking House actions to discuss whether to continue the coronavirus national emergency, as outlined by the National Emergencies Act (NEA).
“What type of a representative body cannot even discuss a national emergency?” Gosar asked in his floor speech.
