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COVID-19 is no longer a Public Health Emergency. What kinds of aid are ending with it?
CBSN
After three years, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week allowed the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 to expire, in effect ending some of the flexibilities under various acts and provisions that were created along with it.
Tests, vaccines and COVID-19-related treatments that were previously made widely available for free or at low-cost to individuals will no longer be guaranteed under federal law. Generally speaking and in most cases, coverage for COVID-19 related treatments will revert to old rules under individuals' insurance plans.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also announced that its emergency incident period under the Stafford Act, which provided individual and public assistance, ended this week.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
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The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.