Republican House Leadership Whips Against Government Funding Bill with Vaccine Mandate Enforcement Mechanism

The Republican House leadership is whipping votes Thursday against funding government until February 18 over concerns the spending bill also finances coronavirus mandate enforcement measures.

The leadership’s effort to block the funding is a huge win for Republican caucus freedom fighters, who are leading the charge to address the needs of American families. The GOP’s resistance has been spearheaded by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) and his 158-member House Republican Study Committee’s (RSC) opposition to stop the stop-gap funding.

“Democrats have been so singularly focused on jamming through their big government tax-and-spend agenda, they have once again failed to address one of the core responsibilities of governing, which is to work with Republicans to fund the government,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) wrote.

Every Republican should vote NO to unconstitutional vaccine mandates and more reckless deficit spending. pic.twitter.com/0FuLDmNiYV

— Congressman Bob Good (@RepBobGood) December 2, 2021

The federal government’s funding bill must originate in the House. If Republicans stop the bill from passing the Democrat-controlled House, the bill will not proceed to the Senate for consideration.

If the House passes the bill, some Senate Republicans have indicated they will not support the bill over concerns it funds Biden’s radical vaccine agenda.

“It’s up to Sen. Schumer. If he’ll stop any type of funding for the vaccine mandate, then I think this goes forward. But if he doesn’t. … The folks back home want to know how hard we’re fighting for them,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) said Wednesday.

Will there be a government shutdown on Friday? “No,” President Biden says. “There’s a plan in place unless someone decides to be totally erratic.”

— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) December 2, 2021

Senate Republicans are angling to amend the spending bill to terminate the vaccine enforcement mechanism. The amendment proposed by the Republicans would entail a simple up or down majority vote.

To the consternation of Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Thursday declined to comment if he would support Democrats’ efforts to fund Biden’s vaccine enforcement.

The federal government will likely shut down Friday at midnight if the Democrat-controlled Senate is unable to accommodate Republicans’ demands.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø