Senate Republicans threaten shutdown over shot mandate
WASHINGTON — A group of Senate Republicans is threatening to delay action on a spending bill needed to avert a lapse in federal funding Friday unless it also bans enforcement of the Biden administration’s vaccineand-testing mandate for large employers, heightening the threat of a government shutdown.
With Congress lagging behind on finalizing the dozen annual spending bills needed to keep the government running, there is broad acknowledgment that lawmakers will need to pass a stopgap measure this week to stave off a shutdown.
But one day before funding is set to lapse, Democrats and Republicans remain at odds over how long the temporary measure should stretch into 2022 and other details. Congressional leaders in both parties have downplayed the chances of a shutdown, but they conceded that the funding deadline has increased the leverage of senators pressing their own individual agendas.
“If every member of this chamber used the threat of a shutdown to secure concessions on their own interests, that would lead to chaos for the millions and millions of Americans who rely on a functioning government,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader, said Tuesday, “We won’t shut down.”
Still, the vaccine mandate-related objections have raised the prospect of at least a temporary lapse in funding, presenting the first hiccup for Senate Democrats as they juggle efforts to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling, complete a military policy bill and enact their marquee $2.2 trillion domestic policy legislation — all before Christmas.
“We will not support — and will use all means at our disposal to oppose — legislation that funds or in any way enables the enforcement of President Biden’s employer vaccine mandate,” a dozen Republican senators, led by Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, wrote last month in a letter to Schumer.
The House Freedom Caucus, the right flank of the House Republican conference, wrote its own letter Wednesday asking McConnell to use “all procedural tools at his disposal to deny timely passage” of the legislation.
Because the stopgap bill maintains existing funding, effectively freezing in place spending levels negotiated with the Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Senate in 2020, Democrats are pressing to make it as short-lived as possible. But Republicans have pushed to extend the measure longer.
“I’d like February, March would suit me — April, May,” said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee. “I think it gives us more time to seriously sit down.”
Lawmakers were also debating additional spending provisions, including additional funding for Afghan refugees and a provision averting billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare, subsidies and other programs. But even if an agreement is reached, the Senate would require unanimous support to waive a number of procedural steps and swiftly take up the legislation before the Friday deadline.
Without unanimous agreement, the process could drag through the weekend, forcing a brief shutdown. Senate Republicans, with the strong backing of House Republicans, have threatened to prolong the debate unless the bill prohibits funding for a mandate that all large employers require their workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus or submit to weekly testing.
Democrats criticized Republicans on Wednesday for threatening to shutter the government over a policy that is aimed at stemming the spread of the pandemic.
“The fact that they want to walk right up to a government shutdown over a public health issue should frighten the American public,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.