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How did Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats vote on major CRs in 2013 2018 2021 2023?
Executive Summary
The claim asks how Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats voted on major Continuing Resolutions (CRs) in 2013, 2018, 2021 and 2023; available roll-call summaries show clear bipartisan patterns in some years and gaps in the record for others. In 2013 the Senate passed a stopgap CR 54–44 with bipartisan support that reflected a Senate majority process [1]; 2018 saw a short three‑week CR pass by wide margins amid bipartisan negotiation (reported 81–18 in one summary) and other procedural motions were decided by narrow margins including a 47–47 tie that needed the Vice President to break it [2] [3]; 2023 featured a CR where most Democrats and a plurality of Republicans voted for the measure (46 Democrats and 39 Republicans supporting, with 9 Republicans opposed) according to contemporary roll‑call reporting [4]. The record for 2021 is not clearly documented in the provided sources, so a definitive party‑line breakdown for that year cannot be established from these materials alone.
1. How the 2013 showdown really broke down — a bipartisan stopgap that carried the Senate
The available Senate roll‑call reporting indicates that the major October 2013 continuing resolution to reopen funding passed the Senate by a 54–44 margin, a result that reflects a mixture of Democratic and Republican votes rather than strict party-line unanimity [1]. Congressional roll‑call compilations from the 113th Congress document cloture and passage votes around that period, including cloture on omnibus and continuing appropriations measures, but many of the House "mini‑CRs" were never taken up by the Senate because leaders resisted piecemeal funding bills [5] [6]. The 2013 pattern shows Senate leaders on both sides negotiating to avoid a prolonged shutdown, and the final Senate tally represents a deliberative majority rather than a single‑party stamp.
2. The 2018 stopgap: wide margins but procedural drama and Vice Presidential intervention
In 2018 the Senate adopted at least one short‑term CR that reopened the government by significant margins after a brief shutdown; contemporaneous reporting gives an 81–18 result for a three‑week CR that ended a three‑day closure and included negotiated concessions such as CHIP reauthorization and health‑law tax delays [2]. Other procedural steps surrounding CRs in 2018 were much closer: a motion to proceed was recorded at a 47–47 tie that required the Vice President’s tie‑breaking vote, and the final House‑passed CR was sometimes advanced by voice votes or procedural agreements, obscuring full roll‑call breakdowns [3]. The overall picture is bipartisan willingness to pass short fixes when leadership leveraged tradeoffs and floor scheduling.
3. The 2021 gap — no clear vote breakdown in the provided materials
The documents supplied do not contain a reliable, explicit roll‑call summary for the major 2021 CRs, so one cannot assert a party‑line pattern from these sources alone. The dataset includes contextual roll‑call archives and post‑fact summaries for other years but omits an authoritative 2021 party breakdown; therefore any claim about how Senate Republicans and Democrats voted across 2021 CRs would be unsupported by the present materials [5] [7]. Absent a recorded roll call in these excerpts, the prudent conclusion is that 2021 remains undetermined here, not that senators necessarily voted along a single predictable axis.
4. September 2023 and the messy middle — most Democrats in, many Republicans split
A September 2023 continuing resolution to avert a shutdown drew 46 Democrats and 39 Republicans in favor, with nine Republicans voting against the measure, illustrating a split within the GOP caucus and a Democratic bloc broadly supporting the stopgap [4]. Other coverage of the 2023‑24 funding fights shows repeated failed attempts, 60‑vote thresholds unmet, and the use of multiple procedural vehicles where recorded tallies varied, including a later 54–44 roll result mentioned in contemporaneous reporting of a different CR attempt [8]. The 2023 pattern reveals intra‑party division among Republicans and consistent Democratic support on many stopgap votes, reflecting leadership tradeoffs and strategic calculations about immigration, spending levels, and timing.
5. Big picture: bargaining dynamics, not pure party unity, drive CR outcomes
Across the sampled years the decisive factor in CR outcomes is Senate procedure and leadership bargains, not simple party unity: bipartisan votes appear when both sides secure concessions or floor time, while narrow ties and Vice‑Presidential interventions underscore procedurally precarious moments [1] [3] [2]. The supplied materials show examples of broad bipartisan passage (2013 and a 2018 three‑week CR), narrow procedural splits (2018 tie votes), and GOP fractures [9], but they leave 2021 undocumented in this set and expose the limits of drawing a single pattern across all four years from these excerpts alone [4] [8]. Any fuller assessment requires consulting complete roll‑call records for each specific CR to map party votes precisely.