[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 11, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H167]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE PANDEMIC IS OVER

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, in September of 2022, President Biden 
declared the pandemic is over. Despite this, he has continued to extend 
his public health emergency declaration.
  Declaring an emergency gives the President overreaching authority 
over Congress and the State health departments.
  While this emergency is in place, the Federal Government can keep 
States from removing ineligible people--that the rolls should be 
cleaned up--from the Medicaid rolls, and the welfare state will keep 
growing unchecked.
  This declaration has enabled the emergency use of vaccines and 
allowed the President to mandate involuntarily those vaccines to vast 
swaths of the public with little input or debate from Congress and the 
courts. It has also given him legal cover to buy votes with attempts at 
student loan debt forgiveness, rent freezes, and eviction moratoriums.
  Under the cover of this declaration, the President attempted to 
change laws, impose decrees, and has altered the economic life of 
millions of Americans very negatively.
  This is setting a terrible precedent by allowing the executive branch 
to rule by decree with no oversight or input from Congress. He is 
replacing Congress' speech and debate with his own Presidential pen.
  This gross overreach of authority must end and move back to a debate 
and an open process.

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