House Panel Pulls Plug, Fast-Tracking Debate to End Pandemic Orders

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) sponsored one of four pandemic-related bills adopted by the House Rules Committee and testified before the panel on Jan. 30, claiming ending the COVID-19 emergency was “long overdue” and that the Biden administration used the declarations to impose progressive policies by executive order even after President Joe Biden acknowledged the pandemic was over. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

President Joe Biden says his administration will end the three-year COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11 but Republican leaders in the United States House of Representatives aim to declare it over as soon as Feb. 1.

The newly constituted GOP-controlled House Rules Committee cleared four pandemic-related bills during four hours of hearings on Jan. 30, sending the proposals directly to House floor where they will be debated without committee review.