Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., cast the 13,000th roll-call vote of his career Wednesday afternoon when he voted against a Democratic proposal to extend income tax cuts next year for all households earning less than $250,000.

The measure passed 51-48.

Lugar, who joined the Senate in 1977, recently moved past Vice President Joe Biden, a former senator from Delaware, into 10th place for most votes in Senate history.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saluted Lugar and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who cast his 14,000th roll-call vote on the tax-cut legislation.

"This has been a great experience of my life," Lugar said on the Senate floor, "and this has been a very special moment."

Lugar will leave the Senate by year's end. He was defeated in the May 8 Republican primary election by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who faces Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd, in the Nov. 6 general election.

Senate records show that the late Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., cast the most votes -- 18,689 from 1959 until June 2010.