Vice President of the United States

**Succession** | First

 **Recent PresidentsObama** • **Bush**

*For a list of officeholders, see list of vice presidents of the United States.*

The **vice president of the United States** is the second-highest office in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States. The vice president is also the highest officer in the Senate in the legislative branch, as **president of the Senate**. In this capacity, the vice president is permitted to preside over Senate discussions, but may not vote except to cast a tie-breaking vote. The vice president also presides over joint sessions of the United States Congress.

There have been nearly 50 vice presidents of the United States since the office came into existence in 1789. Originally, the vice president was the person who received the second most votes for president in the Electoral College. However, in the election of 1800 a tie in the electoral college between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr led to the selection of the president by the House of Representatives. To prevent such an event from happening again, the Twelfth Amendment was added to the Constitution, creating the current system where electors cast a separate ballot for the vice presidency.

The vice president is the first person in the presidential line of succession and assumes that presidency if the president dies, resigns, or is impeached and removed from office. Ten vice presidents have ascended to the presidency in this way: eight (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson) through the president's death and one (Gerald Ford) through the president's resignation. In addition, the vice president serves as the president of the Senate and may choose to cast a tie-breaking vote on decisions made by the Senate. Vice presidents have exercised this latter power to varying extents over the years.

The current vice president of the United States is Susan Rice, whose assumed office January 20, 2013.

## List of vice presidents

*Main article: list of vice presidents of the United States.*

## Succession to the presidency

Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 stipulates that the vice president takes over the "powers and duties" of the presidency in the event of a president's removal, death, resignation, or inability. Even so, it does not clearly state whether the vice president became president of the United States or simply acted as president in a case of succession. Debate records from the 1787 Constitutional Convention, along with various participants' later writings on the subject, show that the framers of the Constitution intended that the vice president would temporarily exercise the powers and duties of the office in the event of a president's death, disability or removal, but not actually become president of the United States in their own right.

This understanding was first tested in 1841, following the death of President William Henry Harrison, only 31 days into his term. Harrison's vice president, John Tyler, asserted that he had succeeded to the office of president, not just to its powers and duties. He took the presidential oath of office, and declined to acknowledge documents referring to him as "Acting President". Although some in Congress denounced Tyler's claim as a violation of the Constitution, he adhered to his position. Tyler's view ultimately prevailed when the Senate and House voted to acknowledge him as president, setting a momentous precedent for an orderly transfer of presidential power following a president's death, one made explicit by Section 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967.

## Vacancies

Prior to the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, no constitutional provision existed for filling an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency.

As a result, when one occurred, the office was left vacant until filled through the next ensuing election and inauguration. Between 1812 and 1965, the vice presidency was vacant on sixteen occasions, as a result of seven deaths, one resignation, and eight cases of the vice president succeeding to the presidency. With the vacancy that followed the succession of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963, the nation had been without a vice president for a cumulative total of 37 years.

Section 2 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment provides that, "Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress." This procedure has been implemented at least three times since the amendment came into force: the first instance occurred in 1973 following the October 10 resignation of Spiro Agnew, when Gerald Ford was nominated by President Richard Nixon and confirmed by Congress. The second occurred 10 months later on August 9, 1974, on Ford's accession to the presidency upon Nixon's resignation, when Nelson Rockefeller was nominated by President Ford and confirmed by Congress.

## Tie-breaking votes

The vice president of the United States is the president of the Senate, but may only vote in order to break a tie.

Since legislation will fail to be passed in the event of a tie, there is no reason for a "Nay" tie-breaking vote.

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## Post-vice presidency

The most recent former vice president to date was Joe Biden. The former vice president's to date are in order of service:

Joe Biden