President Joe Biden on Thursday announced he is taking executive action to pardon Americans who've been convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law.

The action will benefit 6,500 people with prior federal convictions and thousands of others charged under the District of Columbia's criminal code, according to senior administration officials.

President Biden said Thursday he will pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession and will call on governors to pardon simple state possession offenses.

Why it matters: It could amount to "thousands" of pardons, which would remove a burden that may have prevented some people from receiving employment, housing or educational opportunities, Biden said.

Biden said he will also ask Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra to begin a review of how marijuana is scheduled as a drug under federal law.

The White House announced Thursday that President Biden will take action to pardon about 6,500 people convicted federally for marijuana possession and thousands more under DC local law.

He is also ordering federal agencies to consider changing pot’s Schedule I categorization that lumps it together with such drugs as heroin and LSD.

It is one of the largest mass pardons in history and the subsequent federal review could move the country toward national legalization after 19 states and DC moved to allow the recreational use of the drug under local law.

Amid growing calls from health officials across the country, the Biden administration declared the current monkeypox outbreak to be a public health emergency in the U.S. on Thursday afternoon.

The declaration, which was made by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, comes a little less than two weeks after the World Health Organization designated the outbreak an emergency of international concern.

The Biden administration declared the ongoing monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency on Thursday, a move that comes amid growing case counts and a groundswell of criticism over the way the administration has handled the outbreak.

The move comes as news stories chronicle a series of missteps in the administration’s response to the outbreak, from its failure to rapidly divert vaccine stockpiled as a hedge against bioterrorism to combat spread of monkeypox to its slow decision-making, which led to missed opportunities to vaccinate more quickly.

The Biden administration will tap into public health emergency powers to speed up the distribution of vaccines for monkeypox and improve testing capacity.

The decision to declare monkeypox a public health emergency allows the administration expanded powers to deal with the disease, such as the ability to contract with private companies, such as vaccine distributors, in order to speed up the deployment of the nation's supply of shots. It also gives federal health authorities greater access to state data to monitor the outbreak.

The White House today declared monkeypox a public health emergency.

"We are prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said to reporters during a briefing on Thursday.

The Biden administration released updated guidance on Monday, reminding doctors around the country that they’re protected by federal law if they terminate a patient’s pregnancy as part of treatment in an emergency circumstance — and threatening to fine or strip the Medicare status from hospitals that fail to do so.

Physicians must provide abortions in medical emergencies under federal law and will face penalties if they decline to offer the procedure in these cases, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter to health-care providers on Monday.

Becerra said federal law pre-empts state abortion bans in cases where women face medical emergencies associated with pregnancy under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. If an abortion is necessary to treat a woman facing a medical emergency, physicians must offer the procedure, the health secretary wrote.

The Biden administration said Monday that hospitals must ensure patients can receive abortions when deemed medically necessary in emergency situations in spite of bans in many states on the procedure in most cases.

The Department of Health and Human Services said a federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, stipulates that physicians must perform an abortion in an emergency regardless of state law.