The Biden administration seems to be mighty confused about the status of Covid-19. Just months ago, we were “out of the pandemic phase.” Suddenly, the public-health emergency is back on in full force.
Or, perhaps, the pandemic is being switched on and off, on paper anyway, on the basis of political expediency. Stranger things have happened.
As is now well-documented, President Biden premised last week’s student-debt “cancellation” on the shaky legal rationale that the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students (HEROS) Act of 2003 (a post-9/11 measure initially intended for those impacted by “war or other military operation”) affords the executive branch “sweeping authority” to reduce or eliminate student debt during times of “national emergency.” Conveniently, an Education Department memo determined that the “present” pandemic fits this description.
Yet when Biden tried to rescind the pandemic-era policy allowing for illegal border crossers to be expelled under what’s known as Title 42 in April, the CDC downplayed any lingering public-health concerns in the move.
And last year, when the administration tried to extend the eviction moratorium, it exploited the CDC’s statutory authority, § 361 of the Public Health Service Act, once again emphasizing how the outbreak necessitated unprecedented measures. Yet a month earlier, in a July 4 speech, Biden had declared mission accomplished in beating the pandemic.
What gives? The coronavirus is not Schrödinger’s cat, simultaneously dead and alive. And if the pandemic remains an ongoing calamity, does that mean Biden has failed to deliver on his chief campaign promise? The president either has to accept defeat or admit that he has been acting outside the law to achieve his political aims.
Which is it?