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The Politics Shed- A Free Text Book for all students of Politics.
The powers of the VP described in the constitution are modest. The country's founders saw it as a backstop measure. The VP would be a kind of president-in-waiting, should the president die or become disabled. But the founders concluded that the officeholder would be short on duties, or as one constitutional convention delegate noted "without employment." So they devised one extra role, to serve as the president of the Senate with just one task—cast the final tie-breaking vote. Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the Constitution of the United States, the vice president is the ex officio president of the Senate but may only cast a vote in the Senate to break a tie. As of April 30, 2025, vice presidents have cast a total of 303 tie-breaking votes in the Senate
Vice President JD Vance traveled to Capitol Hill on Wednesday 30th April 2025 to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate that killed a bipartisan effort to halt President Donald Trump’s trade policy.
Earlier in the evening, the Senate rejected the resolution that would have effectively blocked Trump’s global tariffs by revoking the emergency order the president is using to enact them. Two senators who were set to vote for the resolution, Republican Mitch McConnell and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, were absent, allowing the resolution to fail 49-49.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune then moved to ensure that tariff opponents were unable to bring their resolution back up at a later date, forcing Vance to the US Capitol to put an end to the matter. It marked just the second time the vice president has used his tie-breaking authority. The first was when JD Vance cast the 51-50 tie-breaking vote after former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined Democrats to oppose Pete Hegseth’s nomination for Defence Secretary this was just the second time in history that a vice president has broken a tie for a Cabinet nominee – the other being then-Vice President Mike Pence for Betsy DeVos’ 2017 confirmation to lead the Education Department.
Kamala Harris (Biden's Vice President) holds the record for casting the most tiebreaking votes in history. With 33 tie-breaking votes more than any other VP before her. This is more evidence of the polarised Senate and partisan politics.
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