I rise today in support of S.J. Res. 38, a resolution to terminate the COVID-19 national emergency declaration. After nearly 2 years of living under this state of emergency, the American people are worn out and yearning to breathe free.…
I rise today in support of S.J. Res. 38, a resolution to terminate the COVID-19 national emergency declaration.
After nearly 2 years of living under this state of emergency, the American people are worn out and yearning to breathe free. They long for their God-given freedoms and for leaders to take their side.
We as a nation must begin to learn to live with COVID. The robust powers this emergency declaration provides the Federal Government are no longer necessary, and Congress must debate and ultimately repeal them in order to begin the process of unwinding the powers the government took hold of during the peak of the crisis.
As we contemplate what returning to normal means, most Americans accept that COVID will likely never be entirely behind us, and setting zero COVID cases as a victory condition is more harmful than good.
That being said, of course, we have to respect the virus and protect the vulnerable, but we also must accept that personal responsibility, not government mandates and restrictions, must govern our approach to the virus going forward.
We must repeal this emergency declaration today to deliver a symbolic victory to our citizens that normalcy is around the corner and that limited government and our constitutional rights still reign supreme. It is high time to stop talking about restrictions and the unknown. We must chart a new course to victory today that respects the virus and our freedoms.
Let's look back on the recent history of this national emergency declaration. On March 13, 2020, President Trump first declared the national emergency concerning the novel coronavirus disease outbreak.
Two days prior, following an alarming rate of transmission, the World Health Organization had declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Little was known about the rapidly spreading virus at the time, but President Trump's declaration was intended to grant himself, as Chief Executive, additional authorities to bolster the Federal Government's efforts to control the virus and ease the burden on our healthcare system.
Less than a week later, California became the first State to issue a statewide stay-at-home order, and lockdowns, mask mandates, school closures, and capacity limits commenced all across the Nation.
These were the earliest and most frightening days of the pandemic, when our understanding of the virus was minimal and all measures were needed to react to a globe contagion unlike anything seen in nearly a century.
Almost a year later, and just over a month after his inauguration, in February 2021, President Biden justifiably went on to extend the COVID- 19 national emergency declaration for another year, a requirement under the National Emergencies Act that had it not been acted on, would have resulted in the automatic termination of the declaration.
At the time of President Biden's initial extension, only 50 million doses of the vaccine had been administered, and eligibility was largely limited to healthcare workers, first responders, and the most vulnerable populations. It would still be weeks or months before all adults would be eligible in all 50 States. Viral treatments and therapeutics were scarcely available to the public. All the while, the potentially more severe and contagious Delta variant was brewing in other regions of the world before it was detected and became the dominant variant here at home.
The situation on the ground in the United States has changed drastically since those early stages of the pandemic. Thanks to American innovation and Operation Warp Speed, the United States has now multiple vaccines available to all Americans over the age of 5. Everyone ages 12 and older is eligible for a booster shot if they want that inoculation.
In fact, more than 550 million shots have been administered in the United States, with 215 million people fully vaccinated, including 89 percent of individuals 65 and older. Additionally, the FDA has authorized two oral antivirals, and monoclonal antibody treatments are available for those at high risk of becoming seriously ill. Well done. Well done.
Omicron is now the dominant variant in the United States, accounting for 97 percent of the cases. While more contagious, Omicron tends to result in more mild symptoms in infected individuals. In Kansas, the daily case average in recent weeks has decreased 99 percent. Let me say that again. The daily case average has decreased 99 percent. Hospitalizations are down about 80 percent, and deaths are down 98 percent. Nationally, we are seeing drastic decreases in these same three categories as well. But perhaps even more importantly, today, at least 94 percent of Americans have some level of immunization.
Accordingly, States in every corner of the Nation are repealing indoor mask mandates, including blue States that have most adamantly enforced them. Yes, indeed, freedom-loving Americans who are worn out by the draconian lockdowns and mandates are giving a sigh of relief.
Despite all these advances in our position of a much greater understanding of the virus, President Biden stealthily extended the national emergency declaration once again on a late Friday afternoon 2 weeks ago.
Next, let us lay out some of the effects these policies have had on the American people and why we must abandon this approach, shrink the Federal response, and move toward a more nimble and effectively locally based community strategy that allows individual citizens and local health officials to exercise and promote old-fashioned self- responsibility and individual choice.
The first COVID-19 wave in the spring of 2020 took the world by surprise. The spread of the cases globally and in the United States was met with government-ordered lockdowns abroad and here at home. In just a few weeks, lockdowns put more than 10 million Americans out of work, with 6.6 million people applying for unemployment benefits in the last week of March alone.
These lockdowns, some of which extended for months in certain States, and the subsequent mandates and requirements that still remain in place have had dramatically negative impacts on our quality of life and had been minimally beneficial.
A recent study from Johns Hopkins University found lockdowns only reduced the COVID-19 death rate by 0.2 percent--0.2 percent--2 out of 1,000. These researchers noted that while ``lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted.''
These costs have been felt at an alarming rate in a number of aspects of American life. Drug overdose deaths rose by 30 percent in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded. Symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder and the use of mental health care among adults increased by 36 percent from August 2020 to February of 2021.
The numbers for our children are even more troubling--our children, our grandchildren. The CDC found between March and October 2020, emergency department visits for mental health emergencies rose by 24 percent for children ages 5 through 11 and 31 percent for children ages 12 to 17 years.
In addition, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts
increased nearly 51 percent among girls ages 12 through 17--51 percent--in early 2021 compared to the same period in 2019.
School closures in the 2020-2021 academic year left students, on average, 5 months behind in mathematics and 4 months behind in reading. Disadvantaged and low-income schools disproportionately, of course, felt that impact.
These societal ills have been compounded by mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and isolation orders. Keeping this emergency declaration in place will cause--will cause--public health officials and governments at all levels to maintain the possibility of allowing them to remain or resurrecting them.
And much like America's alcohol prohibition a century ago, these mandates will make criminals out of all of us, as we all are guilty of disregarding them at one time or another. This only creates more disrespect for law and order. We can't allow this to happen.
And I have to add this: The mortality rate from COVID for the United States is 75 percent higher than Sweden's--75 percent higher than Sweden's--despite Sweden issuing no shutdowns or mask mandates. Not surprisingly, Sweden's economy is humming ahead of ours at a 5-percent rate above prepandemic levels.
All this being said, once again, I beg this administration and the national media to stop fearmongering, to share all the science, and, please, let our people go.
The Democrats' COVID obsession has also resulted in out-of-control spending and massive debt. Congress has appropriated $6 trillion. That is 6 times 10 to the 12th--6 with 12 zeroes after it--$6 trillion to respond to this crisis. This means Federal spending to combat the pandemic has well surpassed the $4.1 trillion the United States spent waging World War II. Throw in the roughly $1.5 trillion on World War I, the Korean war, Vietnam, and the Gulf war combined, and it still would not exceed what has been spent on COVID relief.
Let me say that another way. We borrowed from my children, my grandchildren, your children and grandchildren. We borrowed and spent more money on COVID than all the major wars combined form the 20th century.
While the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed with nearly unanimous consent in both this body and the House, President Biden and the Democrats in Congress insisted more was needed.
Despite warnings from economists on all ends of the political spectrum that it would harm our economy, Democrats rammed through a highly partisan $1.9 trillion more of a spending package that has overheated our economy. This bill was in response to a problem that was already fixing itself.
Shockingly, I have to point out, only 9 percent of this funding was related to healthcare, and less than 1 percent was dedicated to vaccines. Instead, the funding, like the drawnout, unnecessary, heavy- handed health restrictions, was meant to implement drastic changes in our way of life and system of governance and expand Big Government socialism, not to mention it has resulted in the highest level of inflation we have seen in this country in 40 years. As one economist put it, the U.S. stimulus has been in a ``category of its own'' and has resulted in more inflation than almost any other advanced economy in the world.
With hundreds of billions of dollars of funds for schools and State governments unspent, the President announced during his State of the Union that he plans to send a supplemental COVID relief funding request to Congress. Our Nation's emergency posture to this virus is driving out-of-control spending, fueling inflation, and strapping our children and, again, our grandchildren, with more than $30 trillion in debt.
Indeed, at this time, our national debt is a greater threat to our Nation than COVID. This alone is another reason to end this declaration.
Now let me turn to the executive's emergency authority--the executive branch's emergency authority and Congress's role in delegating those powers. Since article II of the Constitution does not grant the President emergency powers, all such authority is granted by Congress. Many of these authorities are provided through three laws: the National Emergencies Act, which is what we are focused on today; the Stafford Act; and the Public Health Service Act.
All three have been applied by this administration to the COVID response, but the National Emergencies Act grants congressional oversight over a declaration by the President. Before I get into the need to exercise that congressional authority, let me quickly discuss what repealing this emergency declaration will not do. Let's talk about what it won't do.
First, terminating this emergency declaration will not impact the title 42 order currently in place and being exercised at our southern border that allows border officials to expel illegal aliens. Again, this will not impact title 42. The crisis at the United States-Mexico border has been fueled by this administration's decision to resume catch-and-release, halt construction of the border wall, and promise half a million dollars to immigrant families who broke our laws.
As a result, the number of illegal aliens crossing our southern border is at the highest level in more than 20 years under President Biden.
I can assure you, Republicans' intention is not to take away the only tool being utilized at our southern border to stem the tide of illegal immigrants pouring in. The authority for this order lies within the Secretary of Health and Human Services' public health emergency declaration made on January 31, 2020, under the Public Health Service Act.
The most recent internal review of title 42 submitted by CDC Director Walensky on February 2 found that the order needed to remain in place. Republicans agree--we agree--that the external threat of COVID coming across the border unchecked from other nations preserves the need for this order to remain in place and for us to pass legislation outside of these emergency declarations to further secure our porous border.
Second, terminating the emergency declaration would not impact the waivers issued by the HHS Secretary. Let me say that again. Terminating the emergency declaration would not impact the waivers issued by the HHS Secretary. These critical flexibilities--including increased access to care via telehealth--have been crucial to our ability to combat the virus. The telehealth waivers will not be impacted by removing the NEA.
And, in fact, I am a cosponsor of legislation to make many of these successful telehealth waivers permanent, and we must do so after the public health emergency expires, and we return to normal.
Until today, Congress has failed to fulfill our duty and oversight responsibilities laid out in the National Emergencies Act, ceding immense, unchecked power to the executive branch. We must, as the Democratic Representative from the great State of Kentucky, Romano Mazzoli, stated when this bill was being debated in 1975. I will quote Representative Mazzoli, the Democrat from Kentucky.
Consciously and deliberately [we must] force ourselves to
come to grips periodically--and ultimately--[deal] with the
vexing problems of national emergencies. The blame as well as
the glory will be on the shoulders of the Congress. . . . But
that is as it is supposed to be--that is the responsible
course.
The blame and the glory should remain on the shoulders of Congress, and that is why we are here today. We are here today to debate this responsible course moving forward.
While the COVID-19 emergency declaration has not utilized all powers provided to the President, major actions have been taken as a direct result of the declaration. Our Ready Reserve remains active, our Coast Guard is stretched, and the staggeringly expensive student loan relief remains in place.
More importantly, though, this declaration drives our Federal Government to maintain its massive emergency response infrastructure and drives leftwing politicians in Congress to push harmful mandates and unrestrained spending.
These powers are no longer needed. We have tools to minimize the impact of this virus and truly live with it.
This idea of living with COVID is not a fringe position held by Republicans. Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy recently said it was time to, and I will quote him, ``learn how to live'' with it. Democratic Governors in
Nevada, Rhode Island, New York, California--I will say California again--Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, and Oregon have announced they are lifting certain mask mandates and easing other restrictions.
Internationally, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand are working towards ``living with COVID'' phases. Just last week, the British Prime Minister announced that part of his ``living with COVID'' plan would even include the repeal of legislation and legal requirements for those who test positive for COVID to self-isolate.
While President Biden claimed during his State of the Union Address that--and I will quote him--``we are moving forward safely, back to . . . normal routines,'' his actions don't match his words. His call for a ``reset'' and claims to be loosening government intrusion into our lives by way of COVID restrictions are only half-truths. We know this because all these next items are true:
Despite being presented with the devastating effects of lockdowns, school and indoor mask mandates, and other restrictions, the President renewed the Federal Government's national emergency declaration again. In fact, the President just hours ago issued a veto threat of this resolution should it make it to his desk--the President promising a veto before we even have this vote on the Senate floor.
The CDC continues to hide data points they believe would be ``misinterpreted'' by those outside of the swamp they view as ignorant. The people--the people--are so much smarter than they are given credit for. This data gives information on who is receiving booster shots, the effectiveness of vaccines for certain age groups, and figures related to reinfections. This allows the Federal Government to suppress information that contradicts their one-size-fits-all policy and approach and preserves intrusive government policies.
Next, despite the President patting himself on the back for relaxing mask mandates, we still have in place the CDC order that requires masks on airplanes, in Ubers, and on your children's schoolbuses.
The administration has only withdrawn one of their vaccine mandates, the OSHA mandate on employers with more than 100 employees, after--only after--the Supreme Court struck it down. Three mandates are thankfully enjoined by the courts, but deadlines for the CMS mandate on healthcare workers are beginning to be enforced.
Just yesterday, on this floor, 44 Senate Democrats voted to keep the mandate in place despite its constitutional violation of State police powers, harm to an already weak healthcare workforce, and outdated science that guided the promulgation of the rule.
Next, the President's National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan asks Congress to approve funding that would expand the production of vaccines to 1 billion doses a year. That equates to three doses for every person--three doses per American. Do they plan to mandate these? Dr. Fauci recently led us to believe that indeed might be the case, and I will quote Dr. Fauci: ``The potential future requirement for an additional boost . . . is being carefully monitored in real time.''
While we prevented separated members of the military from receiving dishonorable discharges for choosing not to get the vaccine, the Defense Department has kicked out hundreds of our bravest service men and women.
How can the President downplay the progress we have made in our ability to combat the virus? And, more importantly, how can he continue to pursue an invasive and coercive Federal response that has eroded our freedoms and spread misery throughout this Nation? Does he not hear the cry of the people who have given him the power to be President?
As the United States enters the third year of COVID-19, 70 percent of Americans agree that it is time we accepted that COVID is here to stay and that we just need to get on with our lives--70 percent of Americans. We can't get Americans to decide where to go to lunch together, let alone on an issue this big, and 70 percent of Americans maintain these policies are no longer about science or about public health or the will of the people. That is all a guise.
This is about power and using a global pandemic to grow government and lurch our Nation toward socialism. The suffering caused by the government's actions has had an immense impact on the daily lives of Americans in ways that will take years to correct, if ever.
We now know that these actions were wrong. The same people who argued to keep this emergency declaration in place are the same people who were wrong in their advocacy for these government actions.
They were wrong when they told you not to be afraid to go to Chinese New Year celebrations when the first cases were detected in the United States.
They were wrong when they said it was racist to suspend inbound travel from China.
They were wrong when they called you a conspiracy theorist for believing it was possible for this virus to have developed in nature or to have leaked from a laboratory.
They were wrong when they told you lockdowns must remain in place.
They were wrong when they told you masking your children was the only way they could attend in-person classes safely.
They were wrong when they told you massive stimulus spending was necessary and would not lead to inflation.
They were wrong when they told you that inflation would be transitory.
And they were wrong when they denied that natural immunity provided a strong defense against COVID infection and severe symptoms. They were wrong when they denied that natural immunity provided a strong defense against COVID infection and severe symptoms.
They have been wrong nearly every step of the way during the response to this pandemic--always a day late and a dollar spent in the wrong direction. Yet here they are, these same individuals who now reside in the White House and hold majorities in Congress, telling us it would be detrimental to our own health to repeal the President's national emergency declaration. Their motivation is not genuine. It is a blatant effort to further extend the massive accumulation of power that the Federal Government has extended across America for the last 2 years.
Today, the Senate has an opportunity to act to rein in this control and reassert our article I authorities. The Constitution demands it. The authors of the National Emergencies Act demand it. The protection of American liberties demands it.
We have the tools to protect the vulnerable and our populous is near full herd immunity, with 94 percent of Americans having some level of immunity now. Let's not listen to those who have wronged us and have been proven incorrect countless times before throughout this pandemic. Let's listen to common sense and reason. Let's listen to science, and let's listen to the people.
Let's abandon the COVID obsession and groupthink that has infiltrated the highest ranks of government, and let's return the ability to make decisions related to the virus back to the American people.
I yield the floor.
Mr. President, one of my favorite tasks up here is to give folks from back home a tour of this Capitol. We meet them in the Crypt, and we go through the Old Supreme Court, and we walk up the back steps into the Capitol's Rotunda. And I love to say nothing. I love to just watch the folks look up at the walls and gaze at all the famous statues--statues of Eisenhower and Reagan.
There are portraits in that Rotunda, each with a story to tell. Perhaps my favorite portrait is one by John Trumbull; it is a painting of General George Washington, depicting in 1783 his resigning his commission as Commander of the Continental Army. Everyone looks at that painting, and they see in the President--at that time General--George Washington's hands his commission, that piece of paper that he is handing off to the Continental Army.
Behind him, there is a throne; and importantly, it is an empty throne with King's robes on it, seemingly to say that George Washington said: I will not be a King; I will throw my robes off, and we will have a Republic, a democracy.
I would ask our President to throw off his robes. I would ask him to listen to the people and end this declaration of emergency.
I yield the floor.