Senate Republicans pass measure to end COVID vaccine mandates for healthcare workers

Senate Republicans scored a symbolic victory by passing a resolution to end President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.

It’s not expected to go anywhere in the US House of Representatives, nor would anyone expect the White House to sign off on such a bill.

It was brought forward earlier on Wednesday afternoon by the Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall.

According to The Hill, Republicans were able to use the Congressional Review Act to force a vote in the Senate over the matter. The vote was 49 in favor of getting rid of the rule, 44 against. The results ended up like that because six Democrats missed the vote when it happened.

"If it passes this won’t go anywhere in the House, and President Biden would veto it," a Democrat Senate aide told the outlet.

Per Newsmax, Senators Alex Padilla, Amy Klobuchar, Ben Ray Luján, Dianne Feinstein, Tammy Baldwin, and Tina Smith were the democrats absent. The CRA allows for a less than 60-vote on matters due to the Senate rules limiting debate in such cases.

At the beginning of the year, the Biden administration’s efforts to enact widespread mandates for COVID vaccines across private businesses in the United States fizzled out. The Supreme Court of the United States decided the White House’s method of using OSHA in such a fashion "overstepped authority" for the executive branch.

In the meantime, SCOTUS has kept the COVID vaccine requirement for healthcare workers in place.