Congress avoided a government shutdown after Senate conservatives
dropped their demands to nix President Joe Biden's vaccine mandates in
the funding bill — and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave them a
way out. 

Conservatives will argue they got something out of this drama: a vote on
their issue. In reality, it was a face-saving measure. The far-right
started out demanding that Congress effectively scuttle the mandates,
then reduced their ask to a mere vote they knew would fail, ensuring
smooth passage of a continuing resolution a full 30 hours before the
shutdown deadline. 

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Raghu Manavalan is the host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO Audio. 
Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.