The Senate on Thursday voted to approve a stopgap funding measure, narrowly avoiding a Friday deadline to avert a government shutdown.
The bipartisan deal on the continuing resolution, or CR, allowed senators to leave Washington ahead of the upper chamber’s weeklong President’s Day recess as some lawmakers travel to a security conference in Munich amid the looming threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The House last week passed its own version of the CR to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year before going on recess, forcing the Senate to pass the same measure to meet the deadline.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign the measure ahead of the Friday deadline at midnight.
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In a deal to reach unanimous consent to vote on the CR, the Senate considered three Republican amendments: one from Sen. Mike Braun on balancing the budget, one from Sen. Mike Lee to block funding for remaining federal vaccine mandates, and one from Sen. Ted Cruz to block funding for schools with COVID-19 vaccine requirements. All three failed.
A number of Senate absences on Thursday changed the chamber’s usual 50-50 split. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan has not yet returned to the Senate as he recovers from a stroke, although he said Thursday he has returned to Washington for the remainder of his recovery. Sen. Mark Kelly returned to Arizona to be with his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was hospitalized for appendicitis.
But Republicans were also missing, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is in Israel this week. Sen. Richard Burr also missed votes Thursday.
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Cruz and Lee previously sought to make the math work in the Republicans’ favor, arguing on Twitter their efforts were not futile.
NO REPUBLICAN SENATOR should leave town this afternoon.
Schumer is panicking right now because Dems WILL LOSE THE VOTE on my amendment & @SenMikeLee amendment to BLOCK BIDEN’s VACCINE MANDATES & BLOCK MANDATES ON KIDS.
The only way Dems win the vote is if Rs skip town.
Don’t!
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 17, 2022
.@SenateGOP has a very real chance of defunding @POTUS’s remaining vaccine mandates IF every Republican stays for the vote.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) February 17, 2022
