From USAtoday.com…
Both chambers of Congress passed a bill on Thursday to fund the government through Feb. 18, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown before a Friday deadline.
The Senate voted 69-28 late Thursday to pass the short-term measure that the House approved hours earlier. The measure, which President Joe Biden is expected to sign, gives Congress several more weeks to work on a longer-term funding plan covering the entire fiscal year.
A group of Republican senators nearly forced a shutdown after they threatened to delay passage of the bill in the upper chamber. They wanted language preventing the use of federal money to carry out a Biden administration mandate on workplace vaccinations, but the amendment to do that failed 48-50.
Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, who introduced the amendment along with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said the president’s order will displace a significant number of workers.
