Senate conservatives are reportedly considering a forced government shutdown this Friday in hopes of defunding the Biden administration’s private sector vaccine mandate, with House conservatives planning measures to support the effort, according to several Republican sources, Newsmax reports.
The Senate conservatives plan to object to the quick consideration of a plan to extend funding until early next year if Democrat leaders don’t agree to refuse the funding needed for the mandate, the sources told Politico’s Playbook.
The senators think they’ll be able to delay the process until past midnight Friday when the funding for the mandate would officially expire.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told Politico in a statement that while he’s sure the senators would all like to “simplify the process” to resolve the continuing resolution, he “can’t facilitate that without addressing the vaccine mandates.”
“Given that federal courts across the country have raised serious issues with these mandates, it’s not unreasonable for my Democratic colleagues to delay enforcement of the mandates for at least the length of the continuing resolution,” Lee added.
It was not made clear how many of the Senate’s conservatives are willing to follow through on the threat to shut down the government, but in early November, 15 conservatives signed a letter, led by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., to “use all means at our disposal” to block the passage of any continuing resolution that doesn’t stop the vaccine mandate.
Because of Senate rules requiring unanimous consent to move the resolution through quickly, only one senator is needed to object to go past the Friday midnight deadline. Read more at Newsmax.
{Matzav.com}
