Republicans Fail To Provide A Critical Vote In The Senate, Allowing Funding For Biden’s Mandates To Continue

Despite the fact that many Republicans voted against it, the Senate rejected an amendment that would have prohibited funding for President Joe Biden’s vaccine requirement. According to The Epoch Times, the vote took held on February 18 in response to Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s amendment, and it was barely missed by one vote in a vote of 47 – 46.

Following the death of Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, Republicans suddenly had a slim Senate majority (D-NM). Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) have also gone MIA, ostensibly due to family problems. However, four Republican senators did not vote, thereby killing the bill.

Senators Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) were all absent when the Senate voted on Lee’s proposal and two other financing package modifications.

Romney and Inhofe voted to move the bill forward but did not vote the remainder of the day. Graham and Burr did not vote at all on Thursday.

However, the Biden mandates have had a difficult time in court. According to CNN, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that it would not reinstate the requirement, upholding a lower court finding.

In an unsigned ruling stating that the court was speeding its examination of the case, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals did not explain its reasons.

The court indicated that the Biden administration’s application to stay the lower court’s ruling was being taken along with the case, meaning that the appeals court would not rule on the request until it had finished a more comprehensive investigation of the problem.

The requirement, which extended to around 3.5 million federal employees, demanded complete immunization by the end of November, however the administration stated that those who refused vaccination would first be counseled rather than disciplined or fired.

On December 9, the Office of Management and Budget stated that the federal workforce was 97.2 percent compliant with the mandate, a figure that includes individuals with pending or permitted exemptions.

A federal judge in Texas prohibited the government from carrying out the requirement last month, calling it an intrusion on presidential power and citing a Supreme Court ruling that threw down a second administration demand that extended to private-sector workers.

US Circuit Judge Stephen Higginson, selected by previous President Obama, dissents on the appeals court panel.