Again: Biden renews emergency powers

Joe Biden extended his emergency powers again last week after sending a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asking to continue the COVID-19 national emergency. 

When a national emergency is declared, it automatically expires on the anniversary of the declaration. However, the president can extend the national emergency by publishing a notice in the Federal Register and sending a copy to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  

A national emergency awards the president certain emergency powers – over 100, in fact. 

The Atlantic summed it up well in an article they published during President Donald Trump’s term, arguing that the emergency powers were too dangerous.

The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority...For instance, the president can, with the flick of his pen, activate laws allowing him to shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the United States or freeze Americans’ bank accounts. Other powers are available even without a declaration of emergency, including laws that allow the president to deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest. 

President Trump originally declared a national emergency due to COVID-19 on March 1, 2020. In 2021, Biden extended it for another year. Now, as many states are lifting mandates and opening back up, Biden wants to renew his COVID-19 emergency powers “beyond March 1, 2022”. 

Biden’s justification for renewing the national emergency was that it continues to pose a significant risk to public health. 

“There remains a need to continue this national emergency,” the letter reads. “The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause significant risk to the public health and safety of the Nation.  More than 900,000 people in this Nation have perished from the disease, and it is essential to continue to combat and respond to COVID-19 with the full capacity and capability of the Federal Government.” 

Biden’s statistic of 900,000 deaths from COVID is dubious at best, as even the CDC has admitted that there is a need to discriminate between deaths from COVID and deaths with COVID. 

“Therefore,” said Biden, “I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Proclamation 9994 concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Biden’s renewal of his emergency powers comes in the same week that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seized emergency powers to stifle protests against COVID mandates.