No, this executive order doesn’t empower President Joe Biden to suspend elections

A recent Facebook post warns of "permanent tyranny," pointing to a new directive from President Joe Biden, Executive Order 14122.

"Tyrant can suspend presidential elections ‘IF’ a new pandemic hits the U.S.!" the April 26 post says, sharing a screenshot of a blog post from the same date that says, in part, "Biden issues Executive Order 14122." But the blog post doesn’t suggest the executive order enables Biden to suspend elections. 

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Executive Order 14122, issued April 12, does not empower Biden to suspend presidential elections. 

Rather, the order revokes several executive orders Biden’s administration deemed "no longer necessary" and transfers "certain roles and responsibilities" established by other executive orders to the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, which Congress established following the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Among the executive orders that Biden revoked: one "preventing the hoarding of health and medical resources to respond to the spread of COVID-19" and another "requiring mask-wearing." 

The order doesn’t mention suspending presidential elections. In fact, it doesn’t mention elections at all. 

U.S. law sets federal elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November during even-numbered years. As the Congressional Research Service notes, changing the date would require enacting a new law because "neither the Constitution nor Congress provides any … power to the President or other federal officials to change this date outside of Congress’s regular legislative process." 

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