Congress managed to avert a government shutdown just one day ahead of deadline, sending a bill to keep federal agencies funded through mid-February to President Biden’s desk on Thursday evening in a 69-28 vote.
The Senate’s passage of the bill comes after uncertainty over whether leadership could garner the votes, with the measure facing pushback from conservatives who called for language to defund the administration’s vaccine mandates.
The upper chamber ultimately held a vote on an amendment led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — which right-leaning senators pushed to only require 51 votes for passage — to add vaccine mandate-related language, which failed in a 48-50 vote.
While conservative hardliners threatened to derail its passage without the change, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) rallied enough members of his conference to reach the 60 votes needed to keep the federal lights on again.
The House passed the measure earlier in the evening in a 221-212 vote, with GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) being the sole Democrat to support the measure in the lower chamber. Read more.
Source: Matzav