House and Senate Pass HR 6119 – FY 2022 CR

 The House and Senate both took up and passed HR 6119 (Rules Committee print), the Further Extending Government Funding Act, that will extend the current FY 2022 spending through February 18^th, 2022. The bill is a ‘clean’ continuing resolution. The only additional spending included in the bill concerns Operation Allies Welcome, the re-settlement activities for the Afghanistan refuges that were evacuated when the US withdrew US military support from that country this summer.

The House took up the bill this afternoon. After little more than two hours of debate, the bill passed by a near party-line vote of 221 to 212. Rep Kinzinger (R,IL) was the only person to ‘switch sides’ by voting to pass the bill.

After the Senate leadership agreed to a straight up vote on an amendment to defund the President’s vaccine mandate, the Senate took up HR 6119. The anti-vaccine amendment fell on a straight party-line vote of 48 to 50, with a simple majority required for passage. The final bill passed on a partially bipartisan vote of 69 to 28, with 60 ayes required for passage.

President Biden will likely sign the bill tomorrow avoiding a shutdown of the federal government, at least through February.