The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the whole world
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the whole world, diverting all attention towards its uncertainties. In the United States, the virus has not only caused imbalances in public health but also hit the economic well-being of the country. Having the country in a total lockdown, citizens are worried about the myriads of issues. Some are shaken about their well-being, the longevity of the economic crisis, whether some industries will bounce back to normalcy, and whether international policymakers are willing to cooperate regardless of the scarce resources that are secluded to fight the pandemic. The U.S. government has, as a result, been in the forefront fighting this pandemic.
Although there have been numerous approaches towards curbing the virus, there have been several hitches between the different levels of governments, each claiming legality in its undertakings. The Legislative and Executive branches of governments have also had their disagreements in regards to powers bestowed to them by the Constitution. Moreover, issues have also been reported between the private sector and the government in relation to the fight of this pandemic. This essay, will thus, explicitly elucidate on some of the lessons that have arisen from COVID-19, in reference to the issues above.
Checks and Balances
Article II of the Constitution gives the President the absolute power to adjourn Congress in case the House and Senate disagreed on when to go out of session. This Article also espouses that the President has the power to fill up vacancies that may result from the Recess of the Senate In April, President Trump was furious about the numerous government vacancies that, in his opinion, hindered his administration from carrying out responses to tackle the COVID19 threat. Unfortunately, the Senate did not grant him the opportunity since the Democrats opposed his nominees. To fight this, he ordered the Republican leaders to call back the Senate in session in a bid to confirm the nominees, or more so, to take a recess for an extended period to create an opportunity for him to make recess appointment (to make appointments without votes). However, this did not happen since his orders were strongly opposed by the senators. In retaliation of the same, they conduct Pro-forma sessions to ensure that they are still in session; these sessions prevent the President from making recess appointments (Fandos).
The above emphasizes the principle of checks and balances; it ensures that one branch of government does not go ultra vires of the Constitution. For instance, as much as the President has the power to fill up vacancies that result from the Senate’s recess, the Senate has exclusive authority, either to approve or reject presidential nominations. Moreover, on the issue of the President invoking Article II, it is also clear that the House and the Senate were not in disagreement since they had already agreed to adjourn the sessions on 3rd January 2021 (Fandos). This shows that as much as the President is the most powerful man in the country, he/she does not have the power to go ultra vires the Constitution due to the principle of checks and balances from the other branches of government.
Separation of Powers; Powers of the Federal, State, and Local Government
The Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that any power that is not assigned to the Federal government should be granted to the states and local governments. In all cases, the citizens deal with state and local governments in their daily undertakings. The two forms of government share concurrent powers between them. Provided that the states’ laws do not contradict the federal laws, a state has the power to prescribe different policies in regards to their healthcare, education, commerce, and other matters relating to the specific state. Unfortunately, the pull and push for power have been experienced over years between the Federal and State governments. The recent incident has been over reopening of economies, weeks after the law of social distancing due to coronavirus.
When the coronavirus pandemic proved tough to the world, Governors took upon themselves the responsibility of closing the economies of their states. In so doing, they were invoking the powers within their positions. However, this was strongly opposed by President Trump who claimed that such matters were only to be decided by the President and not the states. Nonetheless, Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania indicated on behalf of all the governors from both parties that since the Governors closed the states’ economies, the primary responsibility of opening them should also lie with them (“Trump Insists He Has ‘Total’ Authority to Supersede Governors”). They indicated that they would not permit their people to open businesses unless the data proved safe to do so, and not under coercive directives from White House. The push and pull over the opening of economies has, thus, passed one message; some powers are not yet clear on the governments that should exercise them, therefore, creating a hitch between them.
Power of Congress to Pass Bills
Under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress is given the mandate to pass bills. Although the legislative process is usually slow, it is often politicized by Congress. As a result, bills take months or even years to assent to laws. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the slow process had already been accepted as normalcy to the U.S. citizens. Normally, the bills are passed based on the interest of the political parties and not in the public interest. However, this has not been the case during the pandemic; the House approved the COVID-19 relief package totalling $484bn based on 388-5, the Senate passed it unanimously, and the President enacted the bill without hesitation (“Congress passes $484bn coronavirus relief bill,” 2020). The passing of the relief package bill only passed one message; politics can be placed aside when it comes to matters of national crisis, especially when neither of the parties wants to be blamed in the future for their failure to tackle the pandemic due to inadequacy of resources.
The U.S. President Has the Power to Stop International Travels to the Country
On the 31st of January, 2020, President Donald Trump stated that the unrestricted entry to the U.S. would be detrimental to the residents of the country, and thus put across restrictions, limitations, and exceptions to U.S. entry. He relied on the powers vested to him by the Constitution as well as “…sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code” (“Temporary suspension of entry for recent visitors to China,” 2020). Previously, some U.S. Presidents have restricted operations at ports of entry in the Southern border with Mexico. For example, in 1985, President Reagan ordered a permanent closure of nine ports after a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent was abducted in Mexico (Harrington, 2019). This shows that on matters of national urgency, the President can invoke the powers vested in him by law.
Government Vs Private Sector in Fighting COVID-19
In February 2020, the government Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) insisted that they were the only entity that could carry out the COVIS-19 tests. Despite taking defective tests, CDC insisted that states, such as Seattle could not carry out the tests in their territories although the outbreak became overwhelming. Later on, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that they would involve private entities in battling the virus. Academic hospital labs that had been approved of performing high-quality testing were given the green light to use their tests to detect the virus. Prior to this, the CDC did not send test kits to the hospital labs and the FDA suppressed them through extensive review processes, despite having internally validated the tests (Chen et al., 2020). This shows that although the government may want to take lead in everything, sometimes the greed for power should not suffice over matters of public interests. Due to this realization, economists like Jim Crammer have called on the government to ensure that corporate America is enlisted in the relief efforts to fight COVID-19 (Stankiewicz, 2020).
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous hitches in the lives of human beings under the sun. In the U.S., for example, the virus has led to myriads of disruptions such as lockdowns and deteriorating economies. In the wake of tackling the pandemic, citizens have learned several things about the U.S. government. The first has been the issue of separation of powers between the federal and state governments; the issue of opening economies have resulted to a push and pull over the government that has the power to open economies in the states. The second issue has been drawn from the levels of government; the executive arm claims to have more power to make recess appointments by forcing the Senate to go out of session. However, the Constitution indicates that the Senate has the power to approve or disapprove presidential appointments, or more so, to adjourn their sessions. This ultimately proves the importance of checks and balances in government institutions. Lastly, the other lesson has also been the involvement of private entities in the fight against the virus.