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Fact check: Did House Republicans vote to end the 2013 government shutdown and what were the roll call counts?
Executive Summary
House Republicans were divided when the House voted to end the 2013 federal government shutdown: the chamber approved the continuing resolution by a 285–144 margin, with 87 House Republicans voting for the measure and 144 voting against it, while Democrats voted solidly in favor (198 yes votes). The bill that ended the shutdown funded the government through January 15, 2014, and suspended the statutory debt limit until February 7, 2014, restoring operations after the October 1–17, 2013 shutdown [1] [2] [3]. These roll-call tallies and the legislative terms are consistently reported across contemporaneous and retrospective accounts [1] [4] [2].
1. How the House actually voted — the decisive roll call that ended the shutdown
The recorded House roll call that terminated the 2013 shutdown shows 285 “yea” votes and 144 “nay” votes, a margin that encompassed 87 Republican “yea” votes and 144 Republican “nay” votes, with Democrats providing 198 of the affirmative votes. This count appears in multiple accounts of the October 16–17, 2013 vote and is presented as the definitive tally used to pass H.R. 2775, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, which reopened the federal government [1] [4] [2]. The arithmetic of the roll call is straightforward and replicated across roll-call records and retrospective summaries, leaving little dispute about the core numerical outcome of that House vote [2] [3].
2. The bill’s content and the policy terms that ended the crisis
The legislation approved by the House as part of the compromise provided short-term funding to resume federal operations and attached a suspension of the debt ceiling, buying Congress additional time to negotiate longer-term budgets. Specifically, the continuing resolution funded the government until January 15, 2014, and suspended the debt limit until February 7, 2014, a package designed to halt furloughs and prevent an imminent default while leaving broader disputes unresolved [1]. Those temporal terms shaped what the vote resolved — restoring immediate government functions but not resolving the underlying budget conflicts — and contemporary reporting and later summaries emphasize that the compromise was a temporary, stopgap measure [1] [5].
3. Why the votes split along party lines — the Affordable Care Act fight and GOP strategy
The proximal cause of the shutdown was a partisan impasse over implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); many House Republicans sought to use appropriations leverage to delay, defund, or extract concessions regarding the ACA, a strategy that produced a deep intra-party split when compromise options emerged. The eventual roll call reflects that split: a significant but minority contingent of House Republicans broke with their party’s majority by voting to end the shutdown, while a larger faction adhered to the strategy of withholding support absent ACA concessions [5]. Contemporaneous reporting framed the vote as both a tactical defeat for the anti-ACA hardliners and as evidence of fracture within the House GOP, a characterization borne out by the 87/144 intra-GOP division on the final vote [3] [6].
4. Political consequences and the narrative battle after the vote
After the vote, political actors used the roll call to advance competing narratives: Republicans who opposed the bill presented their stance as principled resistance to the ACA, while Republicans who voted for the measure emphasized ending economic harm and returning services to citizens. Democrats and independent observers framed the vote as a repudiation of the shutdown tactic and an affirmation of the need to keep government functioning. The numerical outcome — 285–144 with 87 GOP yes votes — provided both sides with factual ammunition; the same data were invoked by advocates and critics to claim vindication or to press for further political accountability, a pattern highlighted by multiple summaries and contemporary reports [2].
5. Source convergence and minor inconsistencies — what the record shows and why it matters
Multiple sources in the provided set converge on the central facts: the shutdown lasted October 1–17, 2013; the House passed the continuing resolution 285–144; 87 Republicans voted in favor and 144 against; and the bill funded the government through January 15, 2014, while suspending the debt limit to February 7, 2014 [1] [4] [3]. Minor discrepancies in publication metadata or summary language appear across accounts, but they do not alter the primary record of roll-call numbers and legislative terms, which remain consistent across contemporaneous roll-call reports and later historical summaries [1] [2].