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Fact check: How many times have republicans voted to end the government shutdown?
Executive Summary
Republicans in the Senate have moved to advance a House-passed, GOP-backed continuing resolution to reopen and fund the government 13 times, but each cloture or advancement attempt has failed to reach the 60-vote threshold required in the evenly divided Senate, so the bill did not clear the chamber [1] [2]. Senate leadership and House Republicans present these repeated motions as repeated GOP efforts to end the shutdown, while Senate Democrats and some outside groups characterize the GOP bills as partisan and insufficient, and point to the shortfalls in votes as the procedural reason the measures have not passed [1] [3] [4].
1. Why the count matters: Repeated GOP advances and the 60-vote Senate hurdle
Republican senators have brought a House-passed funding measure to the Senate floor and voted to advance it on 13 separate occasions, according to floor counts and Senate Republican statements; each time the motion failed to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold necessary to proceed to final passage, leaving the government shuttered [1] [2]. The votes to “advance” or to invoke cloture are technically distinct from final passage votes, but in practice these procedural votes determine whether the Senate can proceed to debate and approve a clean continuing resolution; Republicans’ repeated majority-line votes—typically in the mid-50s—illustrate that party-line Republican support has not been sufficient to meet Senate rules [2] [5]. The recurring failures largely reflect the Senate’s supermajority rules rather than a simple numerical tally of “who voted to end the shutdown,” making the raw count of GOP “votes to advance” meaningful only in the context of filibuster arithmetic [2] [6].
2. Which Democrats crossed the aisle and what their votes mean
A small number of Democrats and one independent have voted with Republicans on these advancement motions—most consistently Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman and Angus King—providing intermittent bipartisan support but not enough to reach 60 votes required for cloture [2] [5]. These cross-party votes indicate some Democratic willingness to move forward with the House GOP text, but Senate math is complicated by Republican dissent (notably Sen. Rand Paul voting against the GOP package) and the fact that a handful of Democratic yes-votes cannot substitute for the larger bipartisan coalition needed under current rules [5] [6]. The presence of these defectors is frequently highlighted by Republicans as evidence of bipartisan appeal for their bill, while Democrats emphasize that the measure lacks sufficient protections or policy provisions they seek, framing the dissenting Democratic votes as exceptions rather than a shift in party strategy [2] [4].
3. How Republicans frame the narrative—and how Democrats push back
Senate Republicans and House GOP leadership present the 13 advancement votes as repeated Republican attempts to reopen government and portray Democratic opposition as the proximate cause of the shutdown, a line repeated in public remarks by Senate leadership [1]. The House press release and allied stakeholders frame a “clean, nonpartisan CR” as broadly supported by over 300 organizations, asserting bipartisan majorities in both chambers backed the measure and accusing Senate Democrats of blocking it [3]. Democrats and allied commentators counter that the GOP bills leave policy priorities unresolved—such as health care tax credits and Medicaid funding changes—and insist the failure to pass is rooted in substantive disagreements over policy, not mere obstructionism; both sides use votes and endorsements to advance competing narratives about responsibility for the shutdown [4] [1].
4. The procedural detail that changes the headline: cloture vs. final passage
Media reports show the most recent advancement votes ended with tallies around 54–55 in favor and 45 against, short of the 60 votes required for cloture, and thus the chamber never reached a final passage vote that could have legally reopened the government [2] [5]. The distinction matters: Republicans have repeatedly voted to advance the House bill, but Senate rules mean that an advancement vote is often the decisive barrier; without 60 votes to invoke cloture, the bill cannot proceed to passage. This procedural reality explains why counting “how many times Republicans voted to end the shutdown” requires specifying whether one counts only final passage votes (of which there are none) or cloture/advancement motions (13 attempts reported) and illustrates how Senate rules shape the practical outcome [2] [6].
5. What this tally leaves out and why the bigger picture matters
The numerical claim—Republicans voted 13 times to end the shutdown—accurately reflects the number of times Senate Republicans moved to advance the House GOP funding bill, but it omits context: the content of the bills, inter-party negotiations, dissent within the GOP caucus, and the procedural filibuster constraint that required 60 votes for each advancement attempt [1] [2] [6]. Stakeholder endorsements and House messaging amplify the GOP tally to assign blame, while Democrats emphasize policy gaps in the bills and point to bipartisan majorities in other contexts; assessing responsibility therefore requires considering both the count of advancement votes and the substantive objections that prevented broader support, not relying on the vote count alone [3] [4].