Biden Ends the Covid-19 National Emergency

Plus: A lower global growth forecast ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [The Fisc](   By Yuval Rosenberg Happy Tuesday! President Biden arrived in Belfast today, the first stop on a four-day trip to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the peace deal that helped end years of violence and bloodshed in Northern Ireland. Biden will also visit his ancestral homeland, the Republic of Ireland. Here’s what else we’re watching while waiting for the NBA’s play-in tournament to start. Biden before he departed for Ireland (Reuters) Biden Officially Ends the Covid-19 National Emergency The Covid-19 pandemic is no longer a national emergency. President Joe Biden on Monday made that official, signing a resolution to terminate the emergency status that had been in place since March 2020. Biden had planned to end the emergency next month, but House Republicans in February passed a measure to end it sooner. The White House opposed the GOP effort to more quickly end both the Covid-19 emergency and a related public health emergency, but the president subsequently made clear he would not veto the Republican measure. The Senate then passed the bill in a bipartisan 68-23 vote. The resolution Biden signed on Monday, H.J. Res. 7, only ends the pandemic emergency. The emergency declaration first enacted under President Donald Trump allowed the government to take a broad range of actions to respond to the virus and the economic challenges it presented. Among the effects of the emergency ending, according to Zeke Miller of the [Associated Press]( “The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s COVID-19 mortgage forbearance program is set to end at the end of May, and the Department of Veterans Affairs is now returning to a requirement for in-home visits to determine eligibility for caregiver assistance.” The public health emergency, and the controversial Title 42 border policy it enables, will remain in effect until May 11. That emergency allowed to government to provide Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines at no cost and to expand other benefits. The end of the pandemic emergency came without much fanfare from the Biden administration. The White House on Monday issued a two-line statement simply stating that Biden had signed the resolution into law — “almost aggressively anodyne,” The Washington Post’s [Philip Bump]( called it. CNN’s Nikki Carvajal [notes]( that a White House official downplayed the impact of the signing, saying that the end of the emergency “does not impact our ability to wind down authorities in an orderly way.” Why it matters: The pandemic may officially be over but people are still dying from the virus, of couorse. “Despite Biden’s signature on H.J. Res. 7, of course, the coronavirus is still doing damage,” Bump notes. “While the variant of the virus that’s most prevalent at this point is proving to be less deadly than prior iterations, [more than 1,700 people died]( from the virus in the past week alone.” Quote of the Day “We should be exploring every possibility to get our fellow Americans back into the labor force, including strengthening work requirements across all government programs.” − Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, in a [Washington Post article]( detailing a new Republican push to impose work requirements on a range of federal programs, likely including Medicaid and food stamps. “Many Republicans have said that federal aid programs offer a way for policymakers to boost U.S. workforce participation while saving Washington money — a stance that infuriates Democrats, aid workers and others, who say such changes could harm vulnerable families still reeling since the coronavirus pandemic,” the Post’s Tony Romm and Rachel Roubein write. “The debate in some ways resembles the Republican-led campaign against so-called welfare queens in the 1990s, when a politically resurgent GOP — then under the leadership of House Speaker Newt Gingrich — secured a dramatic restructuring of the government’s social safety net. The resulting overhaul, enacted by President Bill Clinton, slashed cash benefits for millions of Americans in ways that GOP leaders now cite as a model.” Numbers of the Day $5 billion: The Biden administration is starting a program dubbed “Project Next Gen” that will spend more than $5 billion to speed development of new coronavirus vaccines and treatments, The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond [reported]( Monday. The program is a successor to the Trump-era “Operation Warp Speed” that led to the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines. Much like that effort, Project Next Gen reportedly will also have the government partner with private-sector companies, this time with the goal of developing vaccines that are more effective against a broader range of coronaviruses and variants. The money for the program was freed up after the Department of Health and Human Services, at the direction of the White House, shifted funds intended for coronavirus testing and other priorities, Diamond says. 2.8%: The International Monetary Fund lowered its global growth forecast for 2023 to 2.8%, down from the 2.9% projected in January and 3.4% growth in 2022. In its latest [World Economic Outlook]( the IMF warned of an uncertain outlook, with stubborn inflation and concerns about the financial sector lowering the chances of avoiding a sharper downturn. “Risks to the outlook are heavily skewed to the downside, with the chances of a hard landing having risen sharply,” the new report says. It adds: “Advanced economies are expected to see an especially pronounced growth slowdown, from 2.7 percent in 2022 to 1.3 percent in 2023. In a plausible alternative scenario with further financial sector stress, global growth declines to about 2.5 percent in 2023 with advanced economy growth falling below 1 percent.” Still, the report raised its forecast for U.S. growth this year to 1.6%, up two-tenths of a percentage point from January and six-tenths from October 2022. --------------------------------------------------------------- Send your feedback to yrosenberg@thefiscaltimes.com. And please encourage your friends to [sign up here]( for their own copy of this newsletter. --------------------------------------------------------------- News - [GOP Eyes New Work Requirements for Millions on Medicaid, Food Stamps]( – Washington Post - [Schumer to Force Senate Vote on Resolution Condemning Trump Call to Defund DOJ, FBI]( – The Hill - [10 House Republicans Back Fight to Block Omnibus Spending Bill]( – The Hill - [Drug Company Leaders Condemn Ruling Invalidating F.D.A.’s Approval of Abortion Pill]( – New York Times - [Fed Officials Signal Divide Over Whether to Hike Rates Again]( – Bloomberg - [Janet Yellen Says the Economy Looks ‘Bright.’ The IMF Sees ‘Turbulence.’]( – Politico - [Bank Volatility to Cut U.S. Economic Growth, IMF Says]( – Wall Street Journal - [The ‘Rift Is There’: China vs. the World on Global Debt]( – Politico - [Wages May Not Be Inflation’s Cause, but They’re the Focus of the Cure]( – New York Times - [USPS Raising Stamp Price to 66 Cents in Latest Rate Hike]( – Washington Post - [Biden Signs Bill Ending Covid-19 National Emergency]( – CNN - [These Devices Save Lives, but Almost Nobody Has One at Home]( – New York Times - [California Economy Is on Edge After Tech Layoffs and Studio Cutbacks]( – New York Times Views and Analysis - [Sorry, My Fellow Americans, but Your Taxes Are Probably Too Low]( – Catherine Rampell, Washington Post - [The IRS Is Becoming a Model of Efficiency. 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