Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have passed the bill to sponsor the government from Feb 18 – bypassing a government shutdown before hitting the deadline on Friday.
A bunch of Republicans in the Senate almost forced a government shutdown following the threat to postpone the bill to get approved in the upper chamber. They needed language averting the use of Federal funds to execute Biden’s plan of workplace vaccine mandates. However, the amendment failed 48-50 in Congress.
According to Sen. Roger Marshall, the Kansas Republican, who introduced the bill along with Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, Biden’s order will dislocate several workers.
“This is about jobs in Kansas. It’s about jobs in Texas, in Utah, across the nation,” he said to reporters before the vote. “An unconstitutional federal vaccine mandate’s going to lead to an economic shutdown, jobs lost back home.”
Last month, Joe Biden announced vaccine mandates or regular testing against Covid-19 for firms that accommodate more than 100 employees for protection from the Omicron variant. Noncompliance with the rules would result in a $14,000 penalty on the firms. The new mandates have been kept on hold due to multiple lawsuits.
“I’m glad that in the end cooler heads prevailed,” said Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader of the vote in support to keep the government open. “The government will stay open”.
In other news, vaccinated workers in New Mexico will be required to get Covid-19 booster shots starting from January 2022. The state’s Dept of Health improvised its public health orders as it requires workers at hospitals, congregate care facilities, and the governor’s office to get vaccinated.
In Today’s updates of Covid-19 cases, the country has recorded around 48 million Covid-19 cases and confirmed 785,000 deaths – reported the Johns Hopkins University data.
Globally, the cases have surged to 264 million and recorded 5.2 million deaths. The current data from the CDC for vaccination shows, around 197 million Americans are fully vaccinated, making 59.6% of the total population to have gotten the vaccines.
The US detected its very first case of Omicron variant on Wednesday in California, which is now reportedly spread to
