Renee Parsons
After having been enacted in March, 2020, the National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease Outbreak had been subject to Senate Republican efforts to terminate the Emergency declaration in March 2022. The resolution, introduced by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) failed at that time on a strict party line 48 – 47 vote.
However, with a new Republican majority in the House, another vote was conducted on February 1 which approved the Resolution to terminate on a 229 – 197 vote. Eleven House Democrats voted with Republicans to terminate the Covid Emergency.
It is not often when the minority Senate Republicans, frequently split by those who routinely vote with the Democrats, are able to pull off a legislative success of any consequence. However, Sen. Marshall stepped up to give the Resolution to Terminate another try. This time, with twenty Senate Democrats voting with Republicans, the Senate voted 68 – 23 to terminate HJ Resolution 7 which declares that “the national emergency declared by the finding of the President on March 13, 2020, in Proclamation 9994 (85 Fed. Reg. 15337) is hereby terminated.”
The Resolution now goes to President Biden who has indicated he will sign the Resolution.
Renee Parsons served on the ACLU’s Florida State Board of Directors and as president of the ACLU Treasure Coast Chapter. She has been an elected public official in Colorado, staff in the Office of the Colorado State Public Defender, an environmental lobbyist for Friends of the Earth and a staff member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC.