Sen. Joe Manchin recently declined to answer if he would vote to approve a GOP amendment to remove President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. When asked if he would support an amendment to stop funding for Biden’s vaccine mandate, Manchin replied that he is still working on it.

The Dem states that he supports a mandate for federal governments and the military, but isn’t too enthusiastic about the private sector. Although Congressional leaders have reached a tentative agreement to fund the federal government until February, many Senate conservatives hope to exploit the specter that a shutdown could defund Biden’s vaccine mandate.

Sens. Sens. Ted Cruz, Ron Johnson, and Roger Marshall all support the strategy. GOP senators pushed for their amendment to defund vaccine mandate to be approved by a simple majority vote. This would mean that the amendment, with all GOP members and Manchin support, would be included in the continuing resolution.

Marshall states that an amendment vote was being offered in exchange for speeding up the passage of the CR. He said Sen. Marshall explained that they will be speaking with leaders and seeing how this amendment opportunity looks.

Even if an amendment was attached to the Senate, the House would still have to approve the CR with the amended CR. President Biden would also need to accept the bill if it was sent to him. If Congress fails to pass a CR before midnight at the end of the week, Congress will be forced to close down.