The U.S. Senate voted to pass an emergency legislation late Thursday that would keep the government funded through mid-February ahead of a deadline at midnight, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk. The vote of 69–28 to pass the stopgap funding bill will ensure that government agencies be covered until Feb. 18. The measure was needed because Congress has yet to pass the 12 annual appropriations bills to fund the government for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. The measure’s passage through the Senate comes after a vote on it of 221–212 in the House, with Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) the only Republican to join Democrats supporting it. In the Senate, lawmakers first voted on an amendment from Republicans to defund Biden’s vaccine mandate for workers under large companies. Democrats had agreed to allow the vote on the amendment at a simple-majority threshold, after more than a dozen Republicans had …