Biden signs bill officially ending COVID-19 national emergency

President Joe Biden signed a bill on Monday that officially ended the COVID-19 national emergency a month earlier than planned and roughly three years after the start of the pandemic.

The Biden administration previously announced plans to extend both the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency until May 11. But House Republicans rejected the extension and introduced legislation to end both immediately. The bill to end the national emergency was passed by the Senate at the end of March, with nearly two dozen Democrats supporting the legislation.

“House Republicans are keeping our Commitment to America,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tweeted earlier Monday, with a checklist that included ending the national emergency and revoking a military COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

The law Biden signed on Monday only ends the Trump-era national emergency, but the public health emergency will still expire in May if it is not extended again. Biden previously expressed his opposition to ending the emergency early, claiming it would be “a grave disservice to the American people," but he said he would not veto the bill if it were passed.