Stephen Breyer’s retirement creates another opportunity for Kamala Harris to enter the Senate record books. Her 15 tie-breaking votes in 2021 were the most ever by a vice president in a calendar year. Senate Democrats, nominally in control of the 50-50 chamber because of Harris, will need her this year to continue breaking ties to help advance their policy agenda and secure confirmation of the administration’s nominees to the executive branch and judicial positions. That could include becoming the first vice president to seal the confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee. President Joe Biden said Thursday he’ll name his choice to replace Breyer by the end of February. Should that nomination make it to the Senate floor for consideration, Harris’ vote would be necessary under the scenario of universal Democratic support with no Republican crossing the aisle. Biden’s promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court “emphasizes this theme of inclusivity of the Biden administration,” said Joel K. Goldstein, an emeritus professor of law at Saint Louis University and an expert on the vice presidency. “If Vice President Harris casts the tie-breaking vote, I think that would in a sense underscore it. Presidents like to nominate firsts to the Supreme Court.” Even if her vote isn’t needed, Harris—the first woman, the first Black American and the first South Asian American to serve as vice president—could still preside over the high-profile vote and announce the confirmation of the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court. Constitutional PowerThe tie-breaking power of the vice president—who also serves as president of the Senate—is authorized by Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.” Harris cast her first votes in her third week as vice president, voting twice in February 2021 during a “vote-a-rama” that advanced a fiscal 2021 budget resolution and set up a process to allow the Senate to pass parts of the Biden-Harris administration’s $1.9 trillion pandemic response package with a simple majority. 
Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on a budget resolution early on Feb. 5, 2021. That vote on the budget blueprint came at the end of an overnight sequence of 41 roll call votes spanning 15 hours. About 20 minutes earlier, shortly after 5 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2021, Harris also was on hand to break a tie to ensure the Senate adopted an amendment by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). After Harris voted in March 2021 to advance the pandemic response package (Public Law 117-2), her next 12 votes all broke ties on presidential nominations. Her most recent votes came in December 2021, when Harris broke a tie to limit debate, and then confirm, Rachael Rollins as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. “It’s a function of the fact that you have a 50-50 Senate and our politics is very polarized,” Goldstein said. “If you went back to earlier times, it was much more common that you had Republican moderates and Democratic conservatives and there were cross-party votes that were typically up for grabs.” He noted that Clarence Thomas in 1991 was a Republican president’s Supreme Court nominee confirmed by a Democratic-led Senate. Thomas was confirmed 52-48 with the support of 41 Republicans and 11 Democrats after a contentious confirmation hearing that focused on accusations of sexual harassment by former aide Anita Hill. Thomas denied the charges. Plans for further budget-related measures—such as a reconciliation bill with the administration’s economic agenda—as well as a long list of pending nominees make it likely Harris will have several more opportunities to break ties this year. Many key procedural votes require 60 votes, reducing the possibility of ties. They’re much more likely when the Senate considers items under rules requiring a simple majority, such as cloture votes on nominations, budget resolutions and reconciliation bills, and resolutions overturning regulations under the Congressional Review Act. Biden didn’t cast a single tie-breaking vote during eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president. Harris already has cast the fifth-most votes of any vice president in history and topped the 13 votes Mike Pence cast during four years as Donald Trump’s vice president. Pence’s first vote, to confirm Betsy DeVos as Education secretary in February 2017, was the first tie-breaker on a Cabinet nomination, according to the Senate Historical Office. Vice presidents have cast 283 tie-breaking votes since 1789, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Senate Historical Office. “A number of those votes were on important issues, the most critical of which was Senate participation in presidential removals of executive orders,” Roy Swanstrom of Seattle Pacific College wrote in a Ph.D. dissertation on the early Senate that was published as a Senate document in 1962. Dick Cheney cast eight votes in eight years as George W. Bush’s vice president—the last in March 2008, when he intervened in a procedural vote on the fiscal 2009 budget resolution. A Cheney vote in May 2003 led to passage of President George W. Bush’s $330 billion tax-reduction package. Republicans then controlled the Senate 51-49, but a tie ensued when three Republicans voted no and two Democrats voted yes. “By the time I took my seat as president of the Senate on May 23, I felt I had earned my keep. And when I cast the tie-breaking vote to ensure the bill’s passage, I was sure I had,” Cheney wrote in a 2011 memoir, “In My Time.” Two other consequential tie-breaking votes on economic policy came in 1993, when Vice President Al Gore broke deadlocks to advance President Bill Clinton’s deficit-reduction package. Though Democrats then controlled the Senate, a few of them joined all Republicans in opposing the plan, which included a combination of tax increases and spending cuts. When the Senate passed its version of the measure in June 1993, Gore broke a 49-49 tie after 3 a.m. “I want to thank the vice president for his unwavering contribution to the landslide,” Clinton said after Gore broke a 50-50 tie on final passage that August. “Al loved to joke that whenever he voted, we always won,” Clinton wrote in a 2004 autobiography, “My Life.” Biden is one of 12 vice presidents to never cast a tie-breaking vote. He’s the only one of them who served two full terms. Before the 25th Amendment was ratified, there was no method for replacing a vice president before an election. Any tie votes during those periods couldn’t be broken. To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Giroux in Washington at To contact the editors responsible for this story: Loren Duggan at ; Kyle Trygstad at ; Bennett Roth at
Vice President Pence arrives at the Senate to cast a tie-breaking vote for Betsy DeVos to be education secretary on Tuesday. J. Scott Applewhite/APVice President Pence has done something that his predecessor, Joe Biden, did not do even once in his eight years in the same office. He cast a tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate. The occasion is Tuesday's confirmation of Betsy DeVos as President Trump's secretary of education. The DeVos nomination has so far proven the most contentious of all Trump's controversial Cabinet picks. Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined all 46 Democrats and both Independents in opposing DeVos. The other 50 Republicans, however, stood by the nominee. That means the vote ended in a tie. Ties in the Senate do not happen often, but when one does, the Constitution says it may be broken by a vote cast by the vice president of the United States. Tuesday's vote is the 245th instance of this power being used, but it is the first time in history that the vice president's tie-breaking power serves to confirm a nominee to the Cabinet. Note, though, that previous administration's Cabinet nominees, if filibustered, required 60 votes for confirmation, rather than a simple majority. Democrats changed that rule in 2013 when they were in power under former President Barack Obama, frustrated by Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell blocking dozens of Obama federal judiciary nominees. Vice President's Powers The tie-breaking power is vested in the vice president in his capacity as the president of the Senate, and it has been part of the job since John Adams first assumed the office in 1789. If you are surprised to learn that the vice president of the U.S. has an "alter ego" role as the president of the U.S. Senate, you are not alone. This is a part of the veep's job description that is not often on display. In fact, the nation's No. 2 shows up in the Senate chamber for the swearing in of new senators and on other ceremonial occasions (including Picture Day when the entire chamber poses together). When the president delivers a State of the Union address or there is another cause for a joint session of Congress, the vice president can be seen sitting right up there next to the speaker of the House. The rest of the time, however, the day-to-day task of presiding over daily deliberations of the Senate is not performed by the vice president. The Constitution provides for the authority to preside to pass into the body of the Senate itself through an office called the Senate president pro tempore. As a matter of Senate custom, this distinction goes to the most senior (longest serving) member of the majority party (currently Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah). The "president pro tempore" may then decide to act as the presiding officer personally or delegate the privilege to another, usually very junior senator. That is because on most days, the privilege is regarded as more of a chore. The Original VPs
In the early days of the Republic, the first men to occupy the office of vice president were more inclined to preside over the Senate on a regular basis than veeps are today. John Adams, who was George Washington's vice president for eight years (and his successor in 1797), set a record for tie-breaking votes (29) that still stands today. His successor as vice president, Thomas Jefferson, was also a well-known and highly respected member of the Founding Fathers fraternity. He was followed by the formidable but disruptive Aaron Burr. These men were vice president by virtue of being the runner-up in the Electoral College vote for president. This was the original method of determining the vice president, and it may have seemed a good idea at the time. But dissatisfaction set in fast, and the 12th amendment in 1804 made some big changes. Since then, candidates for president and vice president have run as a ticket, a system that has worked from the standpoint of presidents but often served to lessen the stature of their vice presidents. Over time, the Senate grew restive with the presiding presence of the vice president. This became problematic enough that vice presidents largely stepped back from the daily business of the chamber. In the last few decades, as vice presidents have been given more substantial duties by the chief executive, they have had less reason than ever to spend their days listening to Senate debate. Modern-Day 'Emergencies' At the same time, the tie-breaking power has remained a valuable tool under certain circumstances, kept behind a windowed case that says: "In Emergency, Break Glass." Breaking a tie on behalf of the president and his party has given vice presidents a rare opportunity to matter — a chance to be in the limelight and cast a consequential vote that makes a difference. As a general rule, vice presidents have been pressed into service as tie-breakers when the Senate was controlled by the president's party, especially when the margin of control was narrow. Vice President Al Gore had to break ties on budget votes and other tough calls for the Democrats in the 1990s. Vice President Richard Cheney had to be on call regularly to reinforce Republican control of the Senate early in 2001, when the regular roll call was split 50-50 between the parties. He ultimately cast eight tie-breaking votes.
Former Vice President Al Gore after he cast the tie-breaking vote on the Lautenberg Amendment on Capitol Hill in 1999 in Wash., D.C. Stephen Jaffe/AFP/Getty ImagesBy the same token, when the party opposed to the president has controlled the Senate, its leaders have usually avoided bringing votes that could result in ties. That is why Vice President Dan Quayle got no chances to vote in his single term. Senate majority leaders opposed to the president have usually preferred to pull back on holding a vote if it seemed likely to result in a tie. On the other hand, some Senate majority leaders have forced votes to a tie in order to make the vice president cast a politically unpopular vote on behalf of his boss. All told, there have been a dozen vice presidents (one-quarter of the overall total) who served without ever casting a single tiebreaker vote. It is a relatively noteworthy group, in that half of these dozen went on to be president, including Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford. So it is rather rare and certainly notable to see Pence pressed into service in this manner in just his third week in office. |
Who is given the power to cast tie-breaking votes in the u.s. senate?
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