President Biden on Friday signed a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government fully funded through February 18 — avoiding a partial government shutdown.
Biden’s signature comes after the House passed a short-term continuing resolution on Thursday night largely along party lines. The he Senate passed the measure 69-28 shortly after, just one day before a Friday deadline to prevent a shutdown.
Senators rejected an amendment to the continuing resolution that would have banned the federal government from funding enforcement of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates in a 50–48 along party lines.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News on Thursday that he opposed the initial efforts to delay the funding bill over the vaccine mandate funding. He said he does not believe “shutting down the government over this issue is going to get an outcome.”
McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer worked to quickly move the bill through the chamber to avert a shutdown.
“Funding the government isn’t a great achievement,” Biden said on Friday morning. “It’s the bare minimum of what we need to get done.”
However, the president added that “in these times, a bipartisan cooperation is worth recognition” and thanked Schumer, McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for “getting this done.”
He urged Congress to use the additional time to pass spending measures to fund the government through the end of this fiscal year.