WASHINGTON — On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) issued the following statement on the Continuing Resolution to fund the government through February 18:

“I did not support this legislation because it includes more unchecked spending and Biden’s pointless and coercive vaccine mandate. As president-elect, Biden said on vaccines, ‘I don't think it should be mandatory, I wouldn't demand it be mandatory.’ Yet, now he has and Americans are suffering. We have severe worker shortages throughout our economy and vaccine mandates increase these shortages.

“We should never have to legislate under the threat of a government shutdown. In Wisconsin, if the governor and state legislature can’t pass the budget, we don’t shut down the state government, we spend at last year's level. The “Prevent Government Shutdowns Act” – which I championed and passed out of the committee I chaired – would enforce the same discipline at the federal level. It is a common-sense bipartisan piece of legislation that would address this particular dysfunction and it should have been enacted a long time ago.”

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