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The Vice President of the United States is, ''ex officio,'' the President of the United States Senate and 'votes only to break a tie,' which is known as a casting vote.

Contents

Historical significance

List of Presidents of the Senate by number of tie-breaking votes

List of tie-breaking votes since 1981

External links

Historical significance

The first President of the Senate, John Adams, cast twenty-nine tie-breaking votes — a record that none of his successors have matched. His votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, and prevented war with Great Britain. On at least one occasion he persuaded senators to vote against legislation that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams's political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint in the hope of realizing the goal shared by many of his successors: election in his own right as president of the United States.
In 2001, during the 107th Congress, the Senate was divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and thus Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority. Interestingly, however, because the 107th Congress was sworn in on January 3, while the president and vice president were not sworn in until the 20th, Democrats technically held a 51-50 majority in the Senate for the 17 days while Al Gore was still Vice President. However, no substantive legislating was done in this time.

List of Presidents of the Senate by number of tie-breaking votes

There have been 243 tie-breaking votes cast by 46 Presidents of the Senate. The median number of tie-breaking votes cast is three per Senate President. The mean number is 5.28 tie-breaking votes per Senate President.

Rank by # of Tie- breaking votes	# of Tie- breaking votes	President of the Senate	Party	# in Office	Term of Office	President(s)
1	29	John Adams	Federalist	1	April 21, 1789 – March 4, 1797	Washington
2	28	John Calhoun	Democratic-Republican	7	March 4, 1825 – December 28, 1832	J. Q. Adams / Jackson
3	19	George Dallas	Democrat	11	March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849	Polk
4	17	Richard Johnson	Democrat	9	March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1841	Van Buren
4	17	Schuyler Colfax	Republican	17	March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1873	Grant
6	12	George Clinton	Democratic-Republican	4	March 4, 1805 – April 20, 1812	Jefferson / Madison
7	9	John Breckinridge	Democrat	14	March 4, 1857 – March 4, 1861	Buchanan
8	8	Thomas Marshall	Democrat	28	March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1921	Wilson
8	8	Alben Barkley	Democrat	35	January 20, 1949 – January 20, 1953	Truman
8	8	Richard Nixon	Republican	36	January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961	Eisenhower
11	7	Hannibal Hamlin	Republican	15	March 4, 1861 – March 4, 1865	Lincoln
11	7	George H. W. Bush	Republican	43	January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989	Reagan
11 ★	7 ★	Dick Cheney	Republican	46	January 20, 2001–present	G. W. Bush
14	6	Elbridge Gerry	Democratic-Republican	5	March 4, 1813 – November 23, 1814	Madison
14	6	William Wheeler	Republican	19	March 4, 1877 – March 4, 1881	Hayes
16	4	Martin Van Buren	Democrat	8	March 4, 1833 – March 4, 1837	Jackson
16	4	Levi Morton	Republican	22	March 4, 1889 – March 4, 1893	B. Harrison
16	4	James Sherman	Republican	27	March 4, 1909 – October 30, 1912	Taft
16	4	Henry Wallace	Democrat	33	January 20, 1941 – January 20, 1945	F. Roosevelt
16	4	Hubert Humphrey	Democrat	38	January 20, 1965 – January 20, 1969	L. B. Johnson
16	4	Al Gore	Democrat	45	January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001	Clinton
22	3	Thomas Jefferson	Democratic-Republican	2	March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801	J. Adams
22	3	Aaron Burr	Democratic-Republican	3	March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1805	Jefferson
22	3	Daniel Tompkins	Democratic-Republican	6	March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825	Monroe
22	3	Millard Fillmore	Whig	12	March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850	Taylor
22	3	Chester Arthur	Republican	20	March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881	Garfield
22	3	Charles Curtis	Republican	31	March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933	Hoover
22	3	John Garner	Democrat	32	March 4, 1933 – January 20, 1941	F. Roosevelt
29	2	Adlai E. Stevenson	Democrat	23	March 4, 1893 – March 4, 1897	Cleveland
29	2	Charles Dawes	Republican	30	March 4, 1925 – March 4, 1929	Coolidge
29	2	Spiro Agnew	Republican	39	January 20, 1969 – October 10, 1973	Nixon
32	1	Henry Wilson	Republican	18	March 4, 1873 – November 22, 1875	Grant
32	1	Garret Hobart	Republican	24	March 4, 1897 – November 21,1899	McKinley
32	1	Harry Truman	Democrat	34	January 20, 1945 – April 12, 1945	F. Roosevelt
32	1	Walter Mondale	Democrat	42	January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981	Carter
36	0	John Tyler	Whig	10	March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841	W. H. Harrison
36	0	William King	Democrat	13	March 4, 1853 – April 18, 1853	Pierce
36	0	Andrew Johnson	Democrat	16	March 4, 1865 – April 15, 1865	Lincoln
36	0	Thomas Hendricks	Democrat	21	March 4, 1885 – November 25, 1885	Cleveland
36	0	Theodore Roosevelt	Republican	25	March 4, 1901 – September 14, 1901	McKinley
36	0	Charles Fairbanks	Republican	26	March 4, 1905 – March 4, 1909	T. Roosevelt
36	0	Calvin Coolidge	Republican	29	March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923	Harding
36	0	Lyndon Johnson	Democrat	37	January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963	Kennedy
36	0	Gerald Ford	Republican	40	December 6, 1973 – August 9, 1974	Nixon
36	0	Nelson Rockefeller	Republican	41	December 19, 1974 – January 20, 1977	Ford
36	0	Dan Quayle	Republican	44	January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993	G. H. W. Bush

★ As of January 1, 2007

List of tie-breaking votes since 1981

This is an incomplete list of tie-breaking votes cast by Presidents of the Senate.

Senate President	Date	Bill	Vote	Ultimate result
George H. W. Bush	July 13, 1983	Motion to table Pryor Amdt.1468 on nerve gas	Yea: 50-49
	November 8, 1983	Stevens/Tower/Goldwater Amdt.2517 on nerve gas	Yea: 47-46
	June 14, 1984	Motion to table Moynihan Amdt.3208 on MX missiles	Yea: 49-48
	May 10, 1985	Dole Amdt.93 on cutting deficit	Yea: 50-49
	July 23, 1986	Motion to reconsider vote on Manion nomination	Nay: 49-50
	August 7, 1986	Pryor Amdt.2612 on nerve gas	Nay: 50-51
	September 22, 1987	Motion to table Johnston Amdt.710 on SDI funding	Yea: 51-50
Dan Quayle	None
Al Gore	June 25 1993	(Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993)	Yea: 50-49	Conference Report (see below) enacted as
	August 6 1993	(Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993) Conference Report	Yea: 51-50	Enacted.
	August 3 1994	Motion to table (Johnston Ethanol Limitation Amendment) to (Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 1995)	Yea: 51-50	tabled
	May 20 1999	(Lautenberg Gun Show Sales Amendment) to (School Safety Act of 1999)	Yea: 51-50	rejected by House by voice vote for Senate's lack of constitutional jurisdiction
Dick Cheney	April 3 2001	(Grassley Prescription Drug Reserve Fund Amendment) to (2002 budget)	Yea: 51-50	Agreed To
	April 5 2001	(Hutchison Marriage Penalty Tax Elimination Amendment) to (2002 budget)	Yea: 51-50	Agreed To
	May 21 2002	Motion to table (Allen Mortgage Loan Amendment) to (Trade Act of 2002)	Yea: 50-49	Tabled
	April 11 2003	(2004 budget)	Yea: 51-50	Enacted
	May 15 2003	(Nickles Dividend Exclusion Amendment) to (Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003)	Yea: 51-50	incorporated into (see below), which was enacted as .
	May 23 2003	(Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003) Conference Report	Yea: 51-50	Enacted.
	December 21 2005	(Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2005)	Yea: 51-50	Passed. Bill sent to conference committee and enacted, .

Source: Votes by Vice Presidents to Break Tie Votes in the Senate and Occasions When Vice Presidents Have Voted To Break Tie Votes In The Senate via Senate.gov

External links

★ List of Vice Presidential Tie-Breaking Votes, 1789-2003 (U.S. Senate Historical Office)

★ Votes by Vice Presidents to Break Tie Votes in the Senate, 1981-2005 (Secretary of the U.S. Senate)