Conservatives House Freedom Caucus urged Mitch McConnell to Delay Biden’s Spending Bill

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The conservative House Freedom Caucus urged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to delay the passage of a spending bill to prevent a government shutdown unless it prohibits funding for the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates. On Wednesday, the Freedom Caucus wrote a letter to McConnell and said, “The House is voting later in the day on the spending measure, known as a continuing resolution, without ending any of President Biden’s very damaging, un-American, and in the worst cases, unlawful vaccine mandates”. The group also said that Senate Republicans have important leverage against the mandates because Democrats will need GOP votes to advance the spending measure by Friday night. They said, “We, therefore, write to request that you use all procedural tools at your disposal to deny timely passage of the CR unless it prohibits funding in all respects for the vaccine mandates and enforcement thereof”.

Point to be noted that the conservative caucus is also threatening a potential shutdown to push back against the vaccine mandates announced by President Joe Biden, which have been tied up by courts. On Wednesday, Rep. Chip Roy questioned whether Republicans are going to stand up and say that not one single dollar should be used to fund a government that is telling people that they must get a vaccine, a mandatory vaccine, or they’re gonna lose their job. The president doesn’t have the power to do this. And where is Congress? Congress needs to man up, stand up, and fight for the American people. And that means don’t fund a government that is tyrannically forcing people to get a vaccine that they don’t wanna get. However, McConnell made it clear on Tuesday that he doesn’t want a shutdown. McConnell said, ​​”We won’t shut down. I think we’ll get there, and certainly nobody should be concerned about a government shutdown”.

Moreover, Sen. Roger Marshall spearheaded a letter signed by 10 other GOP senators in early November that said, “They would not support and will use all means at our disposal to oppose legislation that funds or in any way enable the enforcement of President Biden’s employer vaccine mandate, including a continuing resolution unless the latter contains language “protecting Americans from this action”. Sen. Ted Cruz said on Wednesday that Republicans should use every tool at their disposal to block the mandates. He said, “There’s a frequent mantra that those on the left have employed: Your body, your choice. Well, it happens to be right. You should have the choice of the medical procedures that you choose to engage on your body. I think we should use every tool we have to protect people’s rights, and the vaccine mandates are illegal. They’re abusive and they’re hurting this country. It is wrong”.