On 1/31/2021, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Republican Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), and Congresswoman Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) at today’s leadership press conference to discuss how President Biden caved to House Republicans and announced he will end the Public Health Emergencies. Scalise called out President Biden for waiting until May to end these emergencies and highlighted how House Republicans will be voting on legislation this week. Scalise pointed out that if the American people are expected to show up to work, federal employees should be held to the same standard.
House Republicans are taking credit after the Biden administration announced it would allow the public health emergency to expire one day before the lower chamber voted on legislation that would end the pandemic declaration. The White House will end emergency measures on May 11, it said Monday, while the legislation, brought forward by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), would end it immediately.
Scalise said President Joe Biden had “caved” to pressure from House Republicans. “I am glad to see the White House is following the lead of House Republicans and announcing they plan to finally end the Public Health Emergency … on the heels of our announcement last week that we will vote this week to immediately end this outdated declaration. Rather than waiting until May 11, the Biden Administration should join us now in immediately ending this declaration,” the congressman said. House Republicans are working to dismantle all emergency measures in their first weeks in the majority. They have reopened the Capitol to public access and eliminated proxy voting, which allowed members to cast votes on behalf of absent colleagues.
On the SHOW UP Act, Scalise said, “Obviously, with the other pieces of legislation to end the declaration of the pandemic, we are also bringing up the SHOW Up Act. Millions of Americans have already gone back to work. Americans show up every day to work. Washington shouldn’t be the last place to get back to work, it should have been the first. But yet, as we see today, at many agencies, more than half of their federal workers are not showing up to work, and it’s hurting families back home across America.
“I know a lot of us get from constituents that are complaining about this every day, us that this process is broken. I get calls from veterans can’t get the proper Veterans Affairs benefits. These are people who served our country, risked their lives for our freedoms, and they can’t even get their paperwork processed because they might need records, and somebody at home is not able to get access to those records because they’re not showing up for work. Our veterans showed up for work. Those employees at the federal level need to show up for work to help give them their benefits.
“There are still millions of taxpayers across the country in 2023 who still haven’t gotten their IRS return from 2021 because IRS agents aren’t showing up to work. This needs to end. People are waiting on passports for more than six months at a time because you can’t process a passport remotely from home. You need to show up at work. Families expect the federal government to do their jobs and work for them. They’re surely collecting their paychecks. It’s long past time that they show up for work, as well.”
On Congresswoman Salazar’s resolution that denounces socialism, Scalise said “So we’re bringing all of these bills, as well as a bill to denounce the horrors of socialism. Salazar, who is the author of the bill, has seen it herself. You talk about atrocities we’ve seen from totalitarian dictatorships. Over 100 million people worldwide have lost their lives to the horrors of socialism, and it’s about time Congress stands up and denounces it. I encourage all my Democrat colleagues to join us in voting for that piece of legislation, as well.”
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Biden ‘caved’ on ending health Emergencies, SHOW UP Act: not working on veterans, IRS & passport