On December 3, President Joe Biden signed the Further Extending Government Funding Act (H.R. 6119), a continuing resolution (CR) that extends government funding at fiscal year (FY) 2021 levels through February 18, 2022 and which ultimately avoided a government shutdown. The signing followed a 221-212 vote in the House of Representatives and a 69-28 vote in the Senate.
There was some suspense in the weeks leading up to the Senate vote as a group of Senate Republicans had threatened throughout the week to delay passage of the continuing budget resolution. Their frustrations lay with the Biden administration's new COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards rule that requires businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo regular testing and wear face masks in the workplace. But when it came up for a vote, the Senate failed to approve the GOP amendment that would prohibit the use of federal funds to implement or enforce vaccine mandates for COVID-19, including for large businesses, federal health care workers and the military.
The CR delays congressional decision-making on finalizing FY 2022 spending levels for all federal government programs for the short term. If lawmakers do not reach a compromise by mid-February, however, they must fund the government through additional CRs.