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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The sun sets in the lend a hand of the U.S. Capitol dome in Washington, U.S., on midterm election day, November 6, 2018. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan/File Photo
By David Morgan and Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday handed a bill to fund the federal govt via mid-February, sending it on to the Senate which faces a heart of the night Friday deadline to scoot it or face a partial govt shutdown.
The Democratic-managed House voted 221-212 to approve the dwell-gap funding bill, which runs via Feb. 18. Easiest one Republican supported the bill.
It became as soon as unclear whether the Senate will meet the Friday deadline as a tiny group of laborious-line Republican senators threatened to preserve up the bill with out an modification to defund President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for physique of workers.
A failure to scoot the bill point out that hundreds of thousands of federal workers would possibly maybe maybe very effectively be laid off, causing rankings of programs to be halted or pared lend a hand.
“Here’s a lawful compromise that permits an acceptable duration of time for each and every parties in each and every chambers to discontinue negotiations on appropriations,” Democratic Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer talked about on Thursday.
But a group of Republican conservatives, including Mike Lee, Ted Cruz and Roger Marshall, disagreed, raising the possibility that the govtmight perchance partly shut down over the weekend whereas the Senate moves slowly toward eventual passage.
Lee talked about on the Senate floor that if he and other Republican senators got a vote on whether to incorporate funding for vaccine mandates in the upcoming govt appropriations bill, they’d perchance now not lengthen the govtfunding bill.
“All I’m inquiring for is a vote. It would preserve 15 minutes, we would possibly maybe maybe discontinue it lawful now,” Lee talked about, adding that he and the replacement Republican senators in the lend a hand of the effort wished a easy majority on the modification.
Democrats preserve 50 seats in the 100-seat Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris in a living to vote as a tie breaker.
Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, who must quell the rise up within his caucus to withhold the govtworking, reiterated on Thursday that there would be no shutdown. But he did now not answer when requested whether Republicans would agree to switch mercurial by consenting to circumvent the Senate’s cumbersome legislative tips.
“We must scoot it and that’s the reason what we are going to be working toward doing,” the tip Senate Republican informed newshounds.
Pelosi blasted the Republican switch, announcing it demonstrated “irresponsibility” that Congress would reject.
The temporary spending bill would withhold funding of federal govt operations all around the COVID-19 pandemic, amid considerations a pair of sleek upward thrust in cases and the appearance of the Omicron https://www.reuters.com/world/us-tightens-covid-19-wander-tips-countries-flee-quell-omicron-risk-2021-12-01 variant in the US.
The emergency laws is wanted due to Congress has now not but handed the 12 annual appropriations bills funding govt activities for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1.
A partial govt shutdown https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-happens-when-us-federal-govt-shuts-down-2021-09-27 would make a political embarrassment for each and every parties, however especially for Biden’s Democrats, who narrowly back an eye on each and every chambers of Congress.
UP NEXT: DEBT CEILING
Congress faces one more pressing deadline lawful on the heels of this one. The federal govt is furthermore impending its $28.9 trillion borrowing limit, which the Treasury Department has estimated it would also attain by Dec. 15. Failure to lengthen or prefer the limit in time would possibly maybe maybe trigger an economically catastrophic default.
The indisputable fact that the temporary spending bill extends funding into February suggested a victory for Republicans in closed-door negotiations. Democrats had pushed for a measure that would flee into boring January, whereas Republicans demanded a long timeline leaving spending at stages agreed to when Republican Donald Trump became as soon as president.
“Whereas I need it were earlier, this settlement permits the appropriations process to switch forward toward a closing funding settlement which addresses the desires of the American folks,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro talked about in an announcement announcing the settlement.
But she talked about Democrats did prevail in including a $7 billion provision for Afghanistan evacuees.
As soon as enacted, the stopgap funding measure would give Democrats and Republicans nearly about 12 weeks to secure to the bottom of their variations over the annual appropriations bills totaling around $1.5 trillion that fund “discretionary” federal programs for this fiscal year. These bills discontinue now not encompass critical funding for programs such because the Social Security retirement notion that are renewed mechanically.
