The Senate voted Wednesday night to overturn President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine or testing mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees.
While it likely won’t become law since its chances of getting a vote in the House are uncertain and Biden is certain to veto it, the effort demonstrates the bipartisan opposition in Congress to the federal government’s vaccine mandate for large employers.
The effort was led by Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun, and it needed just a simple majority of 51 votes to be approved by the chamber.
The final vote was 52-48. Two Democrats, Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, joined their 50 GOP colleagues in voting to repeal the requirement.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed the Republicans-led challenge to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate as an “anti-science, anti-vaccine vote.””If their plans go into effect, Covid will linger longer and the chance of new variants and new more dangerous variants occurring increases,” Schumer said on Capitol Hill. “It is anti-science, anti-common sense, it makes no sense.”