House and Senate leaders have reached an agreement to fund the federal government until Feb. 18, 2022. The continuing resolution is expected to come to the floor of the House sometime later on Thursday to be voted on.
But the deal faces an uncertain fate in the Senate. Several Senators have been adamant in not funding federal agencies responsible for enforcing Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates, and some are saying they are willing to shut down the government to achieve that goal.
Several GOP senators have said they want a vote on their amendment to bar funding for an Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule requiring businesses with at least 100 workers to ensure they are fully vaccinated or tested regularly. The rule is currently on hold pending litigation at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
They want the threshold for adoption to be a simple majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold applied during the last stopgap bill debate. The vote was 50-50 in late September, meaning if the bar was lowered to a simple majority, a tiebreaker vote from Vice President Kamala Harris could be needed.
On its way to the floor on a separate track is a Congressional Review Act resolution that could be voted on as soon as next week. The resolution would nullify the OSHA rule forcing large companies to have all employees vaccinated or be tested weekly. Forty-one Republican Senators have signed on to the effort, and given that there needs to be at least 10 GOP Senators to pass the funding bill, prospects for Senate passage of the continuing resolution don’t look promising.
Capitalizing on a last-minute scramble to fund the government, a group of Senate conservatives is planning to object to quick consideration of a stopgap measure to extend funding into early 2022 unless Democratic leaders agree to deny money to enforce the mandate. Because of the tight schedule — and Senate rules that require unanimous consent to move quickly — the senators believe they’ll be able to drag out the process well past midnight Friday, when funding officially expires.
“I’m sure we would all like to simplify the process for resolving the CR, but I can’t facilitate that without addressing the vaccine mandates,” Sen. MIKE LEE (R-Utah) told Playbook in a statement. “Given that federal courts across the country have raised serious issues with these mandates, it’s not unreasonable for my Democratic colleagues to delay enforcement of the mandates for at least the length of the continuing resolution.”
Pointing out how reasonable a course of action is doesn’t work when your opponent is unreasoning and illogical.
Related: Growing Numbers on the Right Calling For a Government Shutdown to Block Vaccine Mandates
But Sen. Lee makes an excellent point. Two new court rulings have thrown a monkey wrench into Biden’s mandate plans.
One ruling, issued by a Louisiana-based federal judge, effectively blocked a vaccine mandate for health workers across the country at hospitals that receive federal funding.
A second ruling, by a Kentucky-based federal judge, paused the administration’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee.
Joe Biden and his legal team are getting clobbered in federal court over the legality of his vaccine mandates. So is a shutdown even necessary?
The Congressional Review Act legislation may come to the floor of the House next week. But the OSHA rule is Biden’s rule and Democrats in the House and Senate haven’t been particularly eager to go against their president — especially on something as critical as the mandate.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will have to twist several arms to get the votes to pass the continuing resolution. McConnell has determined that the budget resolution is not the hill to die on to oppose the vaccine mandate — especially when the courts may do the job very nicely.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member