The Senate faces a Friday deadline to pass a short-term extension of federal funding, and while leaders of both parties sounded optimistic that they’ll get it done and avoid a government shutdown, a number of Republicans are threatening to complicate the process, insisting that they won’t agree to ease passage of the bill unless they get a vote on an amendment to defund enforcement of President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates.
How we got here: The House last week passed a stop-gap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, to keep agencies running for three weeks beyond the February 18 deadline, when current funding expires. Now it’s the Senate’s turn. But as first reported by Fox News, six Republicans led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah sent a letter to colleagues Monday saying they won’t allow speedy passage of the funding bill unless the Senate also votes on an amendment to block enforcement of the mandates. The Biden administration’s mandates for health care workers and military members are in effect, but its efforts to require vaccination for other groups, including employees of large private companies, have been withdrawn or blocked by legal challenges.
Lee and other GOP senators made a similar demand before the Senate considered the previous funding stopgap in December. They got a vote on the anti-mandate amendment, which failed, 48-50, with two Republicans absent. But if Democrats agree to another amendment vote, the Senate math may be different this time because Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico is still out recovering from a stroke.
The GOP anti-mandate push follows Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) announcement last week that she put a hold on the spending bill over her concerns that a $30 million Health and Human Services Department harm reduction grant program would fund the purchase of crack pipes for drug users. The Biden administration has denied that claim, and independent fact checkers have determined it to be false.
Party leaders remain hopeful: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Tuesday that he’s “optimistic” that appropriators will keep working toward a full-year spending deal, which he said “is a thousand times better than relying on CRs, continuing resolutions, to lurch from one short-term extension to the next.” But, he said, while those talks proceed, Republicans and Democrats should “avoid even a hint of a government shutdown” by making sure that the short-term funding extension passes this week. “No one, and certainly not my Republican colleagues, wants a Republican government shutdown, so I’m hopeful they will cooperate with us to pass this necessary CR, which every single Democrat wants to happen and will cooperate to make sure that it happens,” Schumer said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) insisted Tuesday that a shutdown isn’t in the works. “As is often the case, we’ll process a few amendments before doing a short-term [continuing resolution],” McConnell told reporters Tuesday. “I think it’ll all be worked out. There’s no danger of a government shutdown."
