President Biden speaks at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, on Dec. 2. Photo: Oliver Contreras/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Senate on Wednesday passed a resolution to overturn President Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees.
Driving the news: Democratic Sens. John Tester (Mont.) and Joe Manchin (W. Va.) backed the Republican-led resolution, which needed a simple majority of 51 votes to be approved by the Senate under the Congressional Review Act.
- The resolution is unlikely to become a law, as it still has to clear the House, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) does not plan to schedule a vote on it. Biden would likely veto the measure.
Flashback: President Biden announced the new rule in September, requiring vaccinations or once-a-week testing for companies with more than 100 employees.
State of play: The rule — initially set to go into effect on Jan. 4 — kicked off a slew of lawsuits from GOP-led states that sought to block the vaccine rule, calling it "unconstitutional, unlawful and unwise."
- A federal appeals court last month blocked Biden's enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, contending it raises "grave statutory and constitutional issues."
- Senate Republicans last month filed their objection to Biden's vaccine mandate for private companies under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to repeal executive branch actions.
What they're saying: "I do not support any government vaccine mandate on private businesses," Manchin said in a statement last week.
- "That’s why I have cosponsored and will strongly support a bill to overturn the federal government vaccine mandate for private businesses."
Go deeper: Republican-led states begin legal fight over Biden vaccine mandate