Like Whitmer, Biden clings to COVID emergency powers

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted, by a 62-36 margin, to terminate the COVID-19 emergency that began in March 2020 and has been extended many times since.

The White House responded quickly. In the lone underlined sentence in its statement on Senate Joint Resolution 63, it wrote: “If Congress passes this resolution, the President will veto it.”

“While COVID-19 is no longer the disruptive threat that it once was and we have made tremendous progress in combating the virus, the virus continues to pose a risk to the American people and our health care system,” read the White House statement.

President Joe Biden refuses to release his grasp on emergency powers conferred by the virus.

His onetime potential running mate, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, has done the same, vetoing eight bills last month that would have put guardrails on the governor’s use of emergency powers in Michigan.

That 62 senators could agree on such a resolution, countermanding the president’s emergency order, is notable. This was a bipartisan effort.

Michigan’s two senators, Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, voted no, and in favor of Biden’s ongoing use of emergency powers.

View the roll-call vote.

Read the White House statement.