Republicans in the North Carolina State House say two years is enough.
All 69 Republican state representatives, including Rep. Jon Hardister (R-Guilford) and Rep. John Faircloth (R-Guilford), signed a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper this week calling on Cooper to end the COVID-19 state of emergency and allow the state to move forward in a more normal fashion.
The letter notes that March 10 marks the two-year anniversary of Cooper’s Executive Order No. 116 that declared the COVID-19 state of emergency and states, “After two years of executive orders that shut down businesses, restricted gatherings, closed schools, and mandated masks, the people of North Carolina are more than ready to move on.”
The letter states that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that it is dropping the universal indoor mask recommendations and “school districts and local governments across our state are ending their mask mandates.”
It also notes that in the past month new cases have dropped from an average of about 22,000 to about 3,000 and statewide hospitalizations are down from 5,089 a month ago to 1,618 and states, “As these key metrics continue to fall and vaccines remain readily available to those who want one, there is no justification for a continued state of emergency.”
The letter continues, “Simply put, there is no emergency. Yet, there is still no plan or exit strategy set forth by your Administration outlining how and when the nearly two-year state of emergency can be lifted.”
The state of emergency gave Cooper vast power to make decisions such as closing restaurants and bars unilaterally without any input from the legislature or other elected officials. Early in the state of emergency it was thought that Cooper had to have a consensus of the Council of State, made up of the 10 statewide elected officials in state government. However, Cooper’s legal team found a way around that provision and the courts upheld Cooper’s ability to make decisions unilaterally.
After several attempts the Republican led legislature included reforms to the state of emergency powers in the state budget bill which Cooper signed. However, the provisions in that bill won’t go into effect until 2023.
They aren’t wrong….data clearly says it is over! Time to travel and be free again…..except…..Ukraine has driven gas prices to point of staycations only. If it isn’t one thing. It is another.
Ukraine would not be happening if Trump were in office. Aren’t you happy that you voted for biden.
No, Biden is terrible. Literally done nothing to improve anything. President Trump has a ego problem, but at least he tried to put America first, and foreign affairs last.
Given we are a global economy (look at oil prices today), putting foreign affairs last is a great reason to have voted Trump out of office.
You mean the Putin boot licker Trump? What a joke. His entire policy on Ukraine was to try (and fail as he usually does) blackmail them to attack his political opponent. Then he fired the well respected Ambassador to Ukraine because she would not back his policy blackmailing Ukraine.
Trump showed Putin that he didn’t care about Ukraine and that he would let Putin do what ever he wanted. Trump even accepted Putin’s word over his own intelligence people since he is such a Putin puppet.
Saying Trump would have stopped Putin from invading Ukraine is like saying a 3 year old could beat up Mike Tyson.
I am VERY Grateful that Biden is in office during the Ukraine crisis. Trump would have tried to give Putin Ukraine on a silver platter. LETS GO BIDEN
For me the state of emergency ended around March 2020.
I’ve got several things I’d like to tell The Honorable Roy Damn Cooper myself… Who would have thought we’d ever see the day where Cooper is better than the POTUS? What a glorious time we’re living in right now.
Funny how folks still talking bout a former president who commented criminal acts (Trump) as if he done so much good he hurt the country more than he could help Trump was so smart he thought he could make the rules no one told him their is house and legislation lol and if Trump was in office Russia and Ukraine would still be at war there has been friction since Ukraine became independent in 1991 Russia still wants to control an show them who is boss U.S. has nothing to so with it.