Senate votes to overturn Biden vaccine mandate for businesses

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.

Biden back in September announced that he would be directing the Labor Department to require all businesses with 100 or more employees to mandate that their workers are either fully vaccinated or undergo weekly testing for Covid-19 and wear masks. The emergency rule was issued in November, prompting lawsuits from Republican-led states and private employers but also from liberal leaning unions.