Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the Senate floor Thursday night that lawmakers had reached a deal to avert a government shutdown.
‘I am pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached between Democrats and Republicans that will allow the Senate to take up and pass the continuing resolution to fund the government through February 18,’ Schumer said. ‘With this agreement there will be no government shutdown.’
Earlier the House passed the bill that would fund the government through mid-February, with a vote of 221-212.
Just one Republican, the retiring Rep. Adam Kinzinger, voted with the Democratic majority to keep the government open.
The deal hatched in the Senate would allow for a vote on a single amendment, the Lee-Marshall amendment, which would defund President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.
That vote is expected to fail.
Just one House Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, voted alongside the Democratic majority to keep the government open – in a vote of 221-212
Then the Senate will vote on the House-passed bill, enabling Biden to sign it before the government would have shut down on midnight Friday.
Sen. Mike Lee – who was spearheading the effort to use the government shutdown deadline to defund Biden’s vaccine mandate – spoke on the Senate floor directly after Schumer’s announcement.
Lee argued that the federal government doesn’t have the power to mandate vaccines and that ’45 million Americans’ are being forced to choose between ‘an unwanted medical procedure and losing their job.’
‘I want to be very clear: I’ve been vaccinated, my family’s been vaccinated. I believe that the development of the vaccine is something of a modern medical miracle, I’m grateful for the vaccine. I think the vaccine is helping Americans be safe from the effects of COVID,’ he said.
‘It’s not the government’s job, it’s not within the government’s authority to tell people that they must be vaccinated and if they don’t get vaccinated they’ll get fired. It’s wrong. It’s immoral,’ the Utah Republican continued.
After Lee’s speech, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, speaking for the Democrats, pointed out that the vaccine mandate in question, allowed a carve-out for people who didn’t want to get vaccinated, as they could get tested for COVID-19 instead.
Lee had been joined by fellow Republicans, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin in the effort.
The House Freedom Caucus, knowing the stop-gap bill would pass the House, encouraged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to stall the legislation in the Senate, but the Kentucky Republican signaled he had no appetite for a shutdown.
‘We won’t shut down,’ he told reporters earlier this week. ‘I think we’ll get there, and certainly nobody should be concerned about a government shutdown.’
The stop-gap funding bill contains virtually no new spending, except for $7 billion for Afghan refugees.
Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro said that the deal included virtually no new spending, but it does include $7 billion for Afghan refugees
House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro had originally only wanted to extend the funding for two weeks, but lawmakers on both sides pushed for a longer timeline to hash out fiscal year 2022’s budget.
‘With a new deadline of February 18, there is ample time for Republicans to join us for bipartisan, bicameral appropriations negotiations,’ DeLauro said in a statement after the House passed the legislation, early Thursday evening.
Biden’s mandate, which would order businesses with 100 or more employees to require vaccination or weekly COVID-19 tests, has start date in sight after Occupational Safety and Health Administration suspended implementation of it last month when a federal court blocked the measure.
The mandate was originally scheduled to take effect Jan. 4, and businesses would have faced a maximum of $136,532 in fines, $13,653 per violation.