Who's Missing? 16 Senators Skipped the DHS Shutdown Vote — Senate Attendance Tracker, March 2026

On March 20, while TSA agents worked their 35th consecutive day of unpaid furloughs and spring break travelers lined up at airports across the country, the Senate held its fifth cloture vote on the DHS funding bill. The result: 47-37 — nowhere near the 60 votes needed to break the deadlock. But buried in the tally was another number that deserves attention: 16 senators were simply not there. Not voting yes. Not voting no. Just absent.

Two days earlier — on March 18 — the Senate voted on a resolution directing the removal of U.S. forces from the ongoing Iran military campaign. That vote drew zero absences. Every single senator cast a vote. The contrast tells a story about how the Senate shows up — and when it doesn't.

How We Tracked It

CVT pulled the official "Not Voting" count from five major Senate roll call votes in the 119th Congress, 2nd Session. We focused on high-profile, high-stakes votes across the session — DHS cloture rounds, major bill passage, and the Iran War Powers discharge. "Not Voting" in Senate records means a senator was not present for the vote and did not cast a paired vote. It is distinct from a deliberate abstention on the record. Senators are not required to explain absences.

Two Votes, Two Attendance Stories

The Iran War Powers vote on March 18 was a moment of rare complete participation. All 100 senators cast a vote — 47 for the resolution, 53 against. Full attendance on a Senate roll call is uncommon enough to be notable. It reflects how senators behave when a vote carries genuine political weight and historical significance. When every senator calculates that their presence and their vote matters, they show up.

Two days later, Vote #59 — the fifth Senate attempt to invoke cloture on the DHS funding bill — had only 84 senators participate. The 47-37 result was nowhere near the 60-vote threshold. Senate Majority Leader John Thune had put the vote on reconsideration — a procedural move to keep the shutdown on the record heading into the spring recess scheduled for March 30. With the outcome effectively predetermined, 16 senators chose not to appear.

The 16 Who Were Not Voting on Vote #59

The absent senators split 7 Republicans and 9 Democrats:

The math on Vote #59 is instructive. Of the 7 absent Republicans, all had voted YEA on the first DHS cloture attempt in February. Had all 7 been present and voted the same way, the total YEA count would have risen from 47 to 54 — still 6 votes short of the 60 needed. The 9 absent Democrats had all been consistent NAY votes on DHS cloture, so their absences did not change the outcome either. The shutdown was always going to survive this vote. But the pattern of who showed up is still worth tracking.

Notable Absence Patterns

Thom Tillis (R-NC) — The Calculated Non-Voter. Tillis has the most deliberate attendance pattern in this dataset. On Vote #57 (SAVE Act Motion to Proceed), he publicly announced in advance that he would not vote — his stated reason: the bill has no realistic path to 60 votes and the debate is performative. He was present for Vote #59 and voted. He is the senator most on record about the reasoning behind his non-participation. For his full voting history, see CVT's Tillis Scorecard from March 19.

Rand Paul (R-KY) — Principles on Display. Paul voted YEA on the SAVE Act motion to proceed (Vote #57) and YEA on the Iran War Powers discharge (Vote #58) — the only Republican to cross party lines on that vote. Yet he did not vote on the DHS cloture (Vote #59). Paul has publicly stated he will not vote for any government funding measure that does not include spending cuts, making his absence from DHS cloture votes a consistent expression of that position.

Montana's Double Absence — Daines & Sheehy (R-MT). Both Montana Republicans were Not Voting on Vote #59. Both had voted YEA on the February DHS cloture (#38). Montana shares a 545-mile border with Canada — U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations there are directly affected by the DHS shutdown. Their paired absence on a Friday afternoon vote, with Senate recess nine days out, may reflect scheduling. The data doesn't explain it; it records it.

The Minnesota Pair — Klobuchar & Smith (D-MN). Both Minnesota Democrats were absent from Vote #59. Both had cast NAY votes on the prior DHS cloture rounds. Their opposition to the bill was not in doubt. But a Friday vote, with recess approaching, can thin the chamber even among engaged members. Both senators attended the Iran War Powers vote two days earlier.

What "Not Voting" Actually Means

Under Senate rules, there is no penalty for failing to vote on a roll call. Senators are not required to explain absences. There is no formal docking of pay for a missed vote. In rare cases, senators arrange "paired" absences — one senator on each side of an issue agrees not to vote so the net effect is neutral — but these are informal and not recorded in the official tally. Official records only show "YEA," "NAY," or "Not Voting."

Common reasons for Not Voting include health, travel, constituent obligations, committee hearings held simultaneously, and votes called on short notice or at the end of the day. None of these require disclosure.

What "Not Voting" is not: it is not a vote to block a bill, and it is not a vote to pass one. In the context of cloture, where the threshold is 60 and you need each YEA vote to matter, a senator who would have voted YEA but was absent is a functional gap — the threshold doesn't adjust downward for absences. Cloture requires 60 affirmative votes regardless of how many senators are present.

Citizens pay U.S. senators $174,000 per year. Roll call votes are among the few public activities with a complete, verifiable record. The "Not Voting" column doesn't imply judgment — it records fact. CVT will continue tracking attendance patterns through the 2nd Session of the 119th Congress.

What to Watch

Senate recess begins March 30. That leaves nine days for leadership to schedule another DHS cloture vote, negotiate a path to 60, or allow the shutdown to continue into recess territory. If no vote clears before March 29, the shutdown will reach at least 44 days when senators leave — and at least 55 days before they return on April 10. CVT will track whether the senators who skipped Vote #59 show up for any vote before the chamber goes on recess.