By Jason Smith
For just over two years, President Joe Biden has used a permanent pandemic narrative to increase command and control over the lives and livelihoods of everyday Americans. Every 90 days – just like clockwork – he has redeclared the pandemic an ongoing public health emergency, including twice since last fall when he had already declared the pandemic over!
But this week, things changed. House Republicans announced they would be taking up legislation to formally end the public health emergency. This pressure led to Joe Biden announcing that he would finally stop renewing the public health emergency designation. It took House Republicans taking action to break up one-party Democrat rule in Washington and force President Biden to take this commonsense step.
The pandemic is over and has been for quite some time. A December Gallup poll provided the clearest evidence yet of this reality, showing that 78 percent of Americans think people who test positive for COVID should go on living their lives and not disrupt work or business. But instead of accepting this, the radical Left and progressive elected officials at all levels of government want Americans to believe that the pandemic is still raging. Americans aren’t fooled – they know the Left is simply trying to justify extending the authoritarian policies of the pandemic, whether it’s mask requirements, vaccine mandates, or lockdowns.
One of the very first actions we took in the new Congress was getting rid of remote voting in the House of Representatives. In the 3 years that proxy voting was available, I never voted remotely and have always been a staunch opponent of the policy. Why? Because working-class Americans would get fired if they didn’t show up for work. We also opened the People’s House back up to the public so that anyone can come in and petition their elected officials, which is how it should be.
One of the bills passed by the House last week was the SHOW UP Act, which would require federal employees to finally return to the office. It’s unacceptable that many federal employees - at the expense of productivity and taxpayer dollars - are still working from home, an option that many working-class folks never had. While government employees and those who work in big cities were hunkering down at home, it was business as usual for the men and women who drive our economy – the restaurant employees, factory workers, Main Street businesses, electricians, and more.
The new Republican House majority also took another important step to get rid of COVID vaccine mandates. The Freedom for Health Care Workers Act would get rid of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on health care providers under certain federal health care programs. At the end of last year, Republicans in Congress successfully pushed Biden to drop the vaccine mandate for service members.
House Republicans will continue fighting to protect your freedoms and push back against the radical Biden agenda that uses fear to try to exert control over Americans’ lives, and I’m proud to help lead the fight.
