华盛顿——在领导人化解了联邦疫苗授权的党派僵局后，参议院周四通过了一项权宜支出法案，该法案避免了短期关闭，并为联邦政府提供资金至2月18日。这项措施现在由总统负责乔·拜登签署成为法律。

当天早些时候，国会领导人宣布，他们最终达成了一项协议，将政府再运行11周，通常保持目前的支出水平，同时增加70亿美元援助阿富汗撤离人员。

一旦众议院投票批准这项措施，参议员们很快就宣布了一项协议，允许他们迅速就此进行投票。

“我很高兴最终，头脑冷静的人占了上风。纽约州参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)表示:“政府将保持开放，我感谢众议院的议员们将我们从可避免的、不必要的、代价高昂的关门边缘拉了回来。”

参议院以69票对28票通过了这项措施。

民主党领导的众议院以221票对212票通过了这项措施。共和党领导层敦促议员投反对票;唯一支持该法案的共和党人来自伊利诺伊州众议员亚当·金辛格。

议员们哀叹这种短期解决方案，并指责反对党在今年的支出法案上缺乏进展。众议院拨款委员会主席、众议员罗莎·德拉鲁(Rosa DeLauro)表示，不过，该措施将允许就涵盖整个预算年度至9月的一揽子计划进行谈判。

“毫无疑问，投票反对这项持续的决议就是投票关闭政府，”德拉罗在众议院辩论中说。

投票前，拜登表示，他已经与参议院领导人谈过，他淡化了对政府关门的担忧。

拜登说:“有一个计划已经到位，除非有人决定完全不稳定，我认为这不会发生。

一些反对拜登疫苗规则的共和党人希望国会采取强硬立场，反对对大型企业工人的强制注射，即使这意味着周末关闭联邦办公室，阻止加快支出法案最终投票的请求。

这只是围绕政府资金的边缘政策的最新例子，在过去20年里，这种政策引发了几次代价高昂的关闭和部分关闭。历史上最长的停工发生在总统任内唐纳德·特朗普——35天一直延续到2019年1月，当时民主党人拒绝批准为他的美墨边境墙拨款。两党都认为停工是不负责任的，然而很少有最后期限过去了还不赶紧避开的。

犹他州共和党参议员李政颖表示，民主党人上个月知道，几名共和党人将利用一切手段反对资助或允许实施雇主疫苗授权的立法。他指责舒默没有谈判，无视他们的立场。

李说，如果在“暂停不必要的功能”和美国人失去工作能力时无所事事之间做出选择，“我每次都会和美国工人站在一起”。

李和参议员罗杰·马歇尔。，撰写了一份修正案，禁止将联邦资金用于实施和执行拜登政府实施的一系列疫苗授权。修正案以48票赞成，50票反对被否决。但是投票打开了立即接受全部支出法案的大门。

李说，数百万人被迫在不想要的医疗程序和失业之间做出选择。

“他们的工作正受到他们自己政府的威胁，”李说。

“让我们给雇主确定性，让员工安心，他们在新的一年里仍然会有工作，”马歇尔在投票前敦促道。

华盛顿参议员帕蒂·默里。，反驳说联邦政府应该使用一切手段来保证美国人的安全，这就是为什么拜登政府采取措施敦促雇主确保他们的工人在来到工作场所之前已经完全接种疫苗或检测呈阴性。

默里说:“没有人想去上班，担心自己可能带着致命病毒回到家里。

白宫认为疫苗接种是结束疫情疫情的最快方式，该疫情已导致美国78万多人死亡，目前仍在发展中，周三该国首次发现令人不安的新变种病例。

法院驳回了这些要求，包括本周的一项裁决，该裁决阻止了对一些医疗工作者的要求的执行。

对一些共和党人来说，法院案件和立法者对潜在破坏性停产的担忧是反对进行高风险停产的因素。

“我有点担心的一件事是:为什么我们要制造政府关门的幽灵，让自己成为公众关注的对象?”共和党领袖得克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁说。

政府已经要求几组工人接种疫苗，但是这项努力正面临法律上的挫折。

一名联邦法官本周阻止政府对10个州的数千名医护人员实施疫苗强制。早些时候，一家联邦上诉法院暂时停止了影响拥有100名或100名以上工人的雇主的职业安全与健康管理局的要求。

政府还出台政策，要求包括军队在内的数百万联邦雇员和联邦承包商全面接种疫苗。这些努力也面临挑战。

美联社的民意调查显示，美国人对拜登为工人接种疫苗的努力意见不一，民主党人压倒性地支持，而大多数共和党人反对。

一些共和党人更喜欢印第安纳州参议员迈克·布劳恩的努力。在下周举行的国会审查行动中，投票否决政府的授权，与拨款战分开。

另外，一些医疗保健提供者抗议权宜之计。医院表示，在新的omicron变体存在不确定性的情况下，它没有采取任何措施来保护他们免受计划生效的医疗保险支付削减的影响。

Senate passes stopgap funding bill, avoiding shutdown

WASHINGTON -- The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill Thursday that avoids a short-term shutdown and funds the federal government through Feb. 18 after leaders defused a partisan standoff over federal vaccine mandates. The measure now goes to PresidentJoe Bidento be signed into law.

Earlier in the day, congressional leaders announced they had finally reached an agreement to keep the government running for 11 more weeks, generally at current spending levels, while adding $7 billion to aid Afghanistan evacuees.

Once the House voted to approve the measure, senators soon announced an agreement that would allow them to vote on it quickly.

“I am glad that in the end, cooler heads prevailed. The government will stay open and I thank the members of this chamber for walking us back from the brink of an avoidable, needless and costly shutdown," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The Senate approved the measure by a vote of 69-28.

The Democratic-led House passed the measure by a 221-212 vote. The Republican leadership urged members to vote no; the lone GOP vote for the bill came from Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger.

Lawmakers bemoaned the short-term fix and blamed the opposing party for the lack of progress on this year's spending bills. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the measure would, however, allow for negotiations on a package covering the full budget year through September.

“Make no mistake, a vote against this continuing resolution is a vote to shut government down," DeLauro said during the House debate.

Before the votes, Biden said he had spoken with Senate leaders and he played down fears of a shutdown.

“There is a plan in place unless somebody decides to be totally erratic, and I don’t think that will happen," Biden said.

Some Republicans opposed to Biden’s vaccine rules wanted Congress to take a hard stand against the mandated shots for workers at larger businesses, even if that meant shutting down federal offices over the weekend by blocking a request that would expedite a final vote on the spending bill.

It was just the latest instance of the brinkmanship around government funding that has triggered several costly shutdowns and partial closures over the past two decades. The longest shutdown in history happened under PresidentDonald Trump— 35 days stretching into January 2019, when Democrats refused to approve money for his U.S-Mexico border wall. Both parties agree the stoppages are irresponsible, yet few deadlines pass without a late scramble to avoid them.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said Democrats knew last month that several Republicans would use all means at their disposal to oppose legislation that funds or allows the enforcement of the employer vaccine mandate. He blamed Schumer for not negotiating and for ignoring their position.

If the choice is between “suspending nonessential functions” or standing idle while Americans lose their ability to work, “I’ll stand with American workers every time,” Lee said.

Lee and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., authored an amendment that prohibited federal dollars being spent to implement and enforce a series of vaccine mandates put in place by the Biden administration. The amendment went down to defeat with 48 yes votes and 50 no votes. But having the vote opened the door to taking up the full spending bill immediately.

Lee said millions were being forced to choose between an unwanted medical procedure and losing their job.

“Their jobs are being threatened by their own government," Lee said.

“Let's give employers certainty and employees peace of mind that they will still have a job this new year," Marshall urged before the vote.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., countered that the federal government should be using every tool to keep Americans safe and that is why the Biden administration has taken steps to urge employers to make sure their workers are fully vaccinated or test negative before they come to the workplace.

“No one wants to go to work and be worried they might come home to their family with a deadly virus," Murray said.

The White House sees the vaccinations as the quickest way to end a pandemic that has killed more than 780,000 people in the United States and is still evolving, as seen Wednesday with the country's first detected case of a troubling new variant.

Courts have knocked back against the mandates, including a ruling this week blocking enforcement of a requirement for some health care workers.

For some Republicans, the court cases and lawmakers' fears about a potentially disruptive shutdown were factors against engaging in a high-stakes shutdown.

“One of the things I’m a little concerned about is: Why would we make ourselves the object of public attention by creating the specter of a government shutdown?” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a GOP leader.

The administration has pursued vaccine requirements for several groups of workers, but the effort is facing legal setbacks.

A federal judge this week blocked the administration from enforcing a vaccine mandate on thousands of health care workers in 10 states. Earlier, a federal appeals court temporarily halted the OSHA requirement affecting employers with 100 or more workers.

The administration has also put in place policies requiring millions of federal employees and federal contractors, including military troops, to be fully vaccinated. Those efforts are also under challenge.

Polling from The Associated Press shows Americans are divided over Biden's effort to vaccinate workers, with Democrats overwhelmingly for it while most Republicans are against.

Some Republicans prefer an effort from Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., to vote to reject the administration’s mandates in a congressional review action expected next week, separate from the funding fight.

Separately, some health care providers protested the stopgap spending measure. Hospitals say it does nothing to shield them from Medicare payment cuts scheduled to go into effect amid uncertainty about the new omicron variant.