Senate passes stopgap funding bill, avoiding shutdown

Washington, Dec. 3 (BNA): The Senate passed a temporary spending bill Thursday that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. That measure now goes to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

Earlier in the day, congressional leaders announced that they had finally reached an agreement to keep the government operating for an additional 11 weeks, generally at current spending levels, while adding $7 billion to help evacuees from Afghanistan.

Once the House of Representatives voted to approve the measure, senators soon announced an agreement that would allow them to vote on it quickly, according to the Associated Press.

The Senate approved the measure by 69 votes to 28. The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the measure by 221-212. The Republican leadership urged members to vote “no”; The only GOP vote for the bill came from Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger.

Lawmakers lamented the short-term reform and blamed the opposition party for the lack of progress on this year’s spending bills. Representative Rosa DeLoro, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the measure would, however, allow for negotiations to take place on a package covering the full budget year through September.

Some Republicans opposed to Biden’s vaccine rules wanted Congress to take a tough stance against mandatory shots of workers in large corporations, even if it meant closing federal offices over the weekend by blocking an order that would speed up the final vote on the spending bill.

This was the latest example of brinkmanship around government funding that has caused many costly shutdowns and partial shutdowns over the past two decades.

The longest shutdown in history occurred under President Donald Trump – 35 days to January 2019, when Democrats refused to approve funds for his US-Mexico border wall. Both parties agree that strikes are irresponsible, yet some deadlines pass without delay in avoiding them.

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