Op-Ed: Government Should Serve, Not Subvert, During Pandemic

by Evelyn N. Farkas

Late last month, the prime minister of Thailand issued new prohibitions under a state of emergency declared the day before, due to COVID-19, that Human Rights Watch termed “vague and overbroad restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom.” On March 30, under cover of a COVID-19 emergency, the Hungarian parliament approved legislation to allow the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to rule by decree indefinitely. In the Philippines, an early draft of emergency legislation passed in late March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic would have given President Rodrigo Duterte the power to take over public utilities, hospitals, and private businesses. Closer to home, our own federal government under President Donald Trump and conservative state actors have taken advantage of our current emergency situation, not by strengthening social services, but rather by unraveling them. These past few weeks have seen federal and state officials pull threads out of environmental regulations, reproductive-rights laws, and healthcare access.

On March 26, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a temporary “Enforcement Discretion Policy.” Under the policy, the EPA wrote that it “does not expect to seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations” when the noncompliance is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration will potentially require businesses to show proof ex post facto that their noncompliance was due to the COVID pandemic. Yet, what is the likelihood that the EPA will adjudicate past noncompliance? Without a bump-up in staffing, the EPA could be expected to handle noncompliance only at a current point in time, and would not be equipped to address what could be tens of thousands of cases of noncompliance in monitoring and reporting that the abnegation of their responsibility to enforce regulations is inviting.

As Gina McCarthy, former EPA administrator under President Obama, described the new policy, it is “an open license to pollute.” She added, “This brazen directive is nothing short of an abject abdication of the E.P.A. mission to protect our wellbeing.’’

Although it is true that some businesses might find themselves short-staffed due to COVID and unable to submit monitoring reports to the EPA in a timely fashion, the EPA might rather allow companies to apply for an extension of deadline to report (much like the recent extension of tax deadlines). This would better serve the needs of ensuring Americans clean air and water, while giving businesses the flexibility they need to navigate a difficult time.

In another retro-political turn, the attorney generals of both Texas and Ohio issued directives in the past two weeks ordering abortion clinics to end surgical abortions, arguing that the move would free up hospital beds, medical workers and PPE to fight COVID-19. No matter what state you live in, deciding whether or not to terminate one’s pregnancy in today’s America is a race against a political and biological clock. We know that delaying an abortion increases a woman’s health risks and decreases her options. And yet again, state officials have chosen to ignore the science. Weeks prior to the two attorney generals’ actions, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, along with seven other obstetric associations, issued a statement that abortion is an “essential component of comprehensive health care” and should not fall into a category of procedures that could be delayed during the coronavirus outbreak.

The cherry on top of this unfortunate policy sundae came last week when a White House official told Politico that the Trump administration would not be reopening http://healthcare.gov/. for a special enrollment period. This moment of desperate need is what the Affordable Care Act was made for — sweeping job layoffs are leaving a rapidly growing number of Americans uninsured and vulnerable. So far, the administration has declined to publicize any alternative options. The administration has established such special enrollment periods in the past, typically in the wake of natural disasters. Acting independently, eleven states, including New York, established special enrollment periods to allow people to obtain new insurance coverage. The federal government should be taking the same action. The medically vulnerable among us are some of those potentially with the greatest exposure to and risk from the virus. These are our grandparents, our lower-income communities, people with chronic or underlying illnesses—all of our neighbors who need comprehensive protection.

As anxiety runs high, and the virus imposes steep costs, the government should seek to ease people’s burdens—not leave the most vulnerable among us to bear the brunt of the impact. The government should not be clearing the way for environmental negligence, singling out women for denial of their constitutional right to abortions, and leaving roadblocks in place that prevent access to affordable healthcare. During wartime, it is understandable that policy priorities would shift; and COVID-19 is indeed an unprecedented threat. Nevertheless, abusing the shift in policy priorities shift to expedite partisan desires is both unethical and undemocratic. Temporary upheaval does not justify sleight-of-hand trickery and under-the-table deals. That is not leadership; that is corrupt abuse of power. It may be happening abroad. We will not let it happen here.

Evelyn N. Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia under President Barack Obama, is currently running for Congress to represent New York’s 17th District.