List of tie-breaking votes cast by vice presidents of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the ex officio President of the United States Senate, as provided in Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the United States Constitution:

“

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

”

The tie-breaking vote (or casting vote) has been made 244 times by 35 different Vice presidents.^[1]

Historical significance

The first President of the Senate, John Adams, cast twenty-nine tie-breaking votes—a record none of his successors has 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.^[2]

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 legislative work was done in this time.

In recent years, with the rise in use of the filibuster in the United States Senate, the Vice President's tie-breaking vote has become less important, because close votes on important issues will, with few exceptions, almost certainly be filibustered, preventing a tied vote from taking place. Three-fifths of the votes—far higher than the half from a tie—is needed to end a filibuster.

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

There have been 244 tie-breaking votes cast by 35 presidents of the Senate while 12 presidents of the Senate did not cast tie-breaking votes. The median and mean numbers of tie-breaking votes cast per Senate President are 3 and 5.19 respectively.

Rank by # of Tie- breaking votes	# of Tie- breaking votes	President of the Senate	Party	Order in Office	Term of office	President(s)
1	29	John Adams	Federalist	1	Apr 21, 1789 – Mar 4, 1797	George Washington
2	28	John Calhoun	Democratic-Republican	7	Mar 4, 1825 – Dec 28, 1832	J. Q. Adams / Andrew Jackson
3	19	George Dallas	Democratic	11	Mar 4, 1845 – Mar 4, 1849	James K. Polk
4	17	Richard Johnson	Democratic	9	Mar 4, 1837 – Mar 4, 1841	Martin Van Buren
4	17	Schuyler Colfax	Republican	17	Mar 4, 1869 – Mar 4, 1873	Ulysses S. Grant
6	12	George Clinton	Democratic-Republican	4	Mar 4, 1805 – Apr 20, 1812	Thomas Jefferson / James Madison
7	9	John Breckinridge	Democratic	14	Mar 4, 1857 – Mar 4, 1861	James Buchanan
8	8	Thomas Marshall	Democratic	28	Mar 4, 1913 – Mar 4, 1921	Woodrow Wilson
8	8	Alben Barkley	Democratic	35	Jan 20, 1949 – Jan 20, 1953	Harry S. Truman
8	8	Richard Nixon	Republican	36	Jan 20, 1953 – Jan 20, 1961	Dwight D. Eisenhower
8	8	Dick Cheney	Republican	46	Jan 20, 2001 – Jan 20, 2009	George W. Bush
12	7	Hannibal Hamlin	Republican	15	Mar 4, 1861 – Mar 4, 1865	Abraham Lincoln
12	7	George H. W. Bush	Republican	43	Jan 20, 1981 – Jan 20, 1989	Ronald Reagan
14	6	Elbridge Gerry	Democratic-Republican	5	Mar 4, 1813 – Nov 23, 1814	James Madison
14	6	William Wheeler	Republican	19	Mar 4, 1877 – Mar 4, 1881	Rutherford B. Hayes
16	4	Martin Van Buren	Democratic	8	Mar 4, 1833 – Mar 4, 1837	Andrew Jackson
16	4	Levi Morton	Republican	22	Mar 4, 1889 – Mar 4, 1893	Benjamin Harrison
16	4	James Sherman	Republican	27	Mar 4, 1909 – Oct 30, 1912	William Howard Taft
16	4	Henry Wallace	Democratic	33	Jan 20, 1941 – Jan 20, 1945	Franklin D. Roosevelt
16	4	Hubert Humphrey	Democratic	38	Jan 20, 1965 – Jan 20, 1969	Lyndon Johnson
16	4	Al Gore	Democratic	45	Jan 20, 1993 – Jan 20, 2001	Bill Clinton
22	3	Thomas Jefferson	Democratic-Republican	2	Mar 4, 1797 – Mar 4, 1801	John Adams
22	3	Aaron Burr	Democratic-Republican	3	Mar 4, 1801 – Mar 4, 1805	Thomas Jefferson
22	3	Daniel Tompkins	Democratic-Republican	6	Mar 4, 1817 – Mar 4, 1825	James Monroe
22	3	Millard Fillmore	Whig	12	Mar 4, 1849 – Jul 9, 1850	Zachary Taylor
22	3	Chester Arthur	Republican	20	Mar 4, 1881 – Sep 19, 1881	James Garfield
22	3	Charles Curtis	Republican	31	Mar 4, 1929 – Mar 4, 1933	Herbert Hoover
22	3	John Garner	Democratic	32	Mar 4, 1933 – Jan 20, 1941	Franklin D. Roosevelt
29	2	Adlai Stevenson	Democratic	23	Mar 4, 1893 – Mar 4, 1897	Grover Cleveland
29	2	Charles Dawes	Republican	30	Mar 4, 1925 – Mar 4, 1929	Calvin Coolidge
29	2	Spiro Agnew	Republican	39	Jan 20, 1969 – Oct 10, 1973	Richard Nixon
32	1	Henry Wilson	Republican	18	Mar 4, 1873 – Nov 22, 1875	Ulysses S. Grant
32	1	Garret Hobart	Republican	24	Mar 4, 1897 – Nov 21, 1899	William McKinley
32	1	Harry Truman	Democratic	34	Jan 20, 1945 – Apr 12, 1945	Franklin D. Roosevelt
32	1	Walter Mondale	Democratic	42	Jan 20, 1977 – Jan 20, 1981	Jimmy Carter
36	0	John Tyler	Whig	10	Mar 4, 1841 – Apr 4, 1841	William Henry Harrison
36	0	William King	Democratic	13	Mar 4, 1853 – Apr 18, 1853	Franklin Pierce
36	0	Andrew Johnson	Democratic	16	Mar 4, 1865 – Apr 15, 1865	Abraham Lincoln
36	0	Thomas Hendricks	Democratic	21	Mar 4, 1885 – Nov 25, 1885	Grover Cleveland
36	0	Theodore Roosevelt	Republican	25	Mar 4, 1901 – Sep 14, 1901	William McKinley
36	0	Charles Fairbanks	Republican	26	Mar 4, 1905 – Mar 4, 1909	Theodore Roosevelt
36	0	Calvin Coolidge	Republican	29	Mar 4, 1921 – Aug 2, 1923	Warren G. Harding
36	0	Lyndon Johnson	Democratic	37	Jan 20, 1961 – Nov 22, 1963	John F. Kennedy
36	0	Gerald Ford	Republican	40	Dec 6, 1973 – Aug 9, 1974	Richard Nixon
36	0	Nelson Rockefeller	Republican	41	Dec 19, 1974 – Jan 20, 1977	Gerald Ford
36	0	Dan Quayle	Republican	44	Jan 20, 1989 – Jan 20, 1993	George H. W. Bush
36	0	Joe Biden	Democratic	47	Jan 20, 2009 – present	Barack Obama

List of tie-breaking votes since 1981

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	H.R. 2264 (Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993)	Yea: 50-49	Conference Report (see below) enacted as Pub.L. 103–66
	August 6, 1993	H.R. 2264 (Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993) Conference Report	Yea: 51-50	Enacted. Pub.L. 103–66
	August 3, 1994	Motion to table S.Amdt. 2446 (Johnston Ethanol Limitation Amendment) to H.R 4624 (Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 1995)	Yea: 51-50	S.Amdt. 2446 tabled
	May 20, 1999	S.Amdt. 362 (Lautenberg Gun Show Sales Amendment) to S. 254 (School Safety Act of 1999)	Yea: 51-50	S. 254 rejected by House by voice vote for Senate's lack of constitutional jurisdiction
Dick Cheney	April 3, 2001	S.Amdt. 173 (Grassley Prescription Drug Reserve Fund Amendment) to H.Con.Res. 83 (2002 budget)	Yea: 51-50	Agreed To
	April 5, 2001	S.Amdt. 347 (Hutchison Marriage Penalty Tax Elimination Amendment) to H.Con.Res. 83 (2002 budget)	Yea: 51-50	Agreed To
	May 21, 2002	Motion to table S.Amdt. 3406 (Allen Mortgage Loan Amendment) to H.R. 3009 (Trade Act of 2002)	Yea: 50-49	Tabled
	April 11, 2003	H.Con.Res. 95 (2004 budget)	Yea: 51-50	Enacted
	May 15, 2003	S.Amdt. 664 (Nickles Dividend Exclusion Amendment) to S. 1054 (Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003)	Yea: 51-50	S. 1054 incorporated into H.R. 2 (see below), which was enacted as Pub.L. 108–27.
	May 23, 2003	H.R. 2 (Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003) Conference Report	Yea: 51-50	Enacted. Pub.L. 108–27
	December 21, 2005	S. 1932 (Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2005)	Yea: 51-50	Passed. Bill sent to conference committee and enacted, Pub.L. 109–171.
	March 13, 2008	Motion to reconsider S. Amdt 4189 to S. Con. Res. 70	Yea: 51-50	Motion agreed to.
Joe Biden	None

References

1. "Senate.gov: VPTies.pdf" (PDF).
2. "Senate.gov: John Adams, 1st Vice President (1789–1797)".

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)