By Teaganne Finn and Rebecca Shabad -
NBC News
Congress approved a
short-term
budget bill on Thursday
that will prevent a government shutdown
before the deadline on Friday night.
For it to be effective, it only remains for the president, Joe Biden, to sign it and make it law.
The Senate voted 69 in favor and 28 against the so-called continuity resolution, acting swiftly hours after the House of Representatives approved the bill.
Once signed by Biden, it would keep the government funded, and its agencies serving,
until February 18
.
The House of Representatives voted 221-212, and a Republican, Adam Kinzinger, from Illinois, joined all Democrats in passing the legislation.
[How a government shutdown would affect the last child tax aid check]
Night falls on the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, December 2, 2021, and the deadline to avoid a government shutdown is approaching.
Scott Applewhite / AP
"I am glad that, in the end, keeping a cold head prevailed, so the Government will remain open, and I thank the members of this House for preventing us from falling into
a closure that was avoidable, unnecessary and costly,
" said Schumer on the Senate floor before the vote.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, announced Thursday morning that House Democrats had reached an agreement with Republican negotiators.
DeLauro said the bill "has virtually no changes to existing funding or policies," though he said it includes
$ 7 billion for evacuees from Afghanistan
.
He also said the agreement will allow lawmakers to craft a longer-term agreement that would take effect next year.
The White House urged "swift passage" of the interim measure in a statement Thursday, adding that it is essential that Congress use "the next few weeks to engage in robust bipartisan negotiations to reach an agreement on appropriations and avoid the effects. devastating years of a full year funded by a continuity resolution ”.
[USA. announces new restrictions as of December 6 for travelers to the omicron variant]
90% of federal employees will comply with vaccination mandate, according to a government official
Nov. 23, 202100: 35
However, Congress did not reach the agreement without some hurdles.
Republicans in the House and Senate made an effort to delay passage of the spending bill because
they opposed the
Biden Administration's
COVID-19 vaccination mandates
for workers.
Three Republican senators, Mike Lee, of Utah, Ted Cruz, of Texas, and Roger Marshall, of Kansas, also made an unsuccessful attempt to delay the government spending bill if it included funds to enforce vaccination mandates.
The Marshall-sponsored amendment on the matter failed 50-48 in a partisan vote.
Moreover, the
Caucus
of the House of Representatives for Freedom, the group most conservative, urged the minority leader of the Senate, Republican Mitch McConnell, in a letter Wednesday to slow down the process in the Senate and threatened to generate a possible government shutdown to reject Biden's vaccination mandates, which have been tied up in lawsuits.
[Millions of dollars from the infrastructure plan are already on the way to be invested in water and pipes]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, lashed out at Republicans when asked about their efforts Thursday, saying she doesn't even know if the Conservatives would have the votes to block the measure.
"But it is once again showing a double, a double irresponsibility," he told reporters at his weekly press conference.
"First of all, they closed the government and then they closed science," he explained.
"
This is so silly that we have people [who] are anti-science, anti-vaccination, saying that they are going to close the government for that,
" he added.
