A bill by Senate Republicans to terminate the national emergency declaration for the COVID-19 pandemic narrowly passed March 3 on a party-line vote.
The legislation passed 48-47, with several absences on the Democratic side of the aisle, in a rebuke of the administration's pandemic policies while it is seeking billions from Congress, Politico reports.
The bill has a narrow chance of passing the Democrat-controlled House, and the White House has promised to veto it if it reached President Joe Biden's desk. The president moved to extend the declaration of COVID-19 as a national emergency in a Feb. 18 letter to Congress.
Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, MD, led the resolution. He said repealing the declaration would "deliver a symbolic victory to our citizens that normalcy is around the corner and that limited government and our constitutional rights still reign supreme," the Wall Street Journal reports.
Democrats backed keeping the declaration in place.
"Just as it looks like we're turning the corner, why on earth would Republicans risk bungling it all by crippling America's ability to remain prepared for the future?" New York Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor, according to the Journal.
The Senate vote followed the March 2 release of the White House's COVID-19 preparedness plan, which is centered on Americans living with the virus while continuing to combat it.
The national emergency was declared in March 2020 by then-President Donald Trump, allowing the administration to use the National Emergencies Act to activate special executive powers. These include 1135 waivers to temporarily modify certain requirements of governmental health insurance programs, as well as other flexibilities related to student loans, U.S. trade and other government functions.