Both the House and Senate on Thursday acted to fund the government temporarily through mid-February, which averted a looming government shutdown at midnight tonight. The House on Thursday evening passed a continuing resolution, 221-212, to fund government operations at the previous year’s fiscal levels through February 18th, allowing more time to hammer out differences. Retiring Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) was the lone GOP member to vote with Democrats. Hours later, the Senate followed suit after days of threats by some conservative senators to use a shutdown threat as leverage to defund President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccinate-or-test mandate for large employers. The chamber ended the standoff with a 69-28 vote to approve the continuing resolution, now headed to the president’s desk. The vote took place after Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got their wish of a vote by simple majority on the question of jettisoning the administration’s mandate which failed, 48-50.
Both the House and Senate are not in session today, although the House held a very brief pro forma session this morning. The Senate will reconvene on Monday, December 6th at 3:00 P.M. and following Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of Jessica Rosenworcel to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission.
The House is now not in session on Monday, and is next expected to meet on Tuesday, December 7th, with votes expected at 6:30 p.m.
