Rules The Vice President Has To Follow

It's objectively one of the most powerful positions in the United States, if not the world, but the vice presidency is also somewhat misunderstood if not mystifying. Almost all of the dozens of men and one woman who have held the office were elected to the post alongside presidents, but their actual role and day-to-day duties as vice president of the United States aren't the same or abundantly well known. They help pass laws and assist the president, but it's a bit obtuse beyond that. You'd be surprised at how much the vice president of the United States really gets paid, for example.

Because of a lack of a clearly laid-out job description in the U.S. Constitution, at least relative to other major federal government posts, the people who have served in the office over the last 250 years or so have helped to pioneer and define the position, working it out as they go along. Here's what the vice presidents of the United States, from the very worst to the absolute best, have been required by law to do, as well as what tradition has determined to be the nature and duties of the job at hand.

The U.S. Constitution became the law of the land of the newly formed United States of America after supermajority ratification in June 1788. That version of the complex document laying out the setup and operations of a modern democracy included a stipulation regarding the function of the individual outranked only by the elected president. "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided," states Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the U.S. Constitution, a chunk dedicated to the rules of the U.S. Senate.

This places the vice president as the presiding officer in charge of the federal Senate. Notably, they don't get to vote on any bills or legislation that come before the lawmaking body except in the event of a tie. At that point, the vice president holds the tie-breaking vote. As of December 2023, vice presidents had exercised this power 301 times.

In the United States, voters indirectly elect the president. Under the Electoral College system, ballots are cast for a slate of electors affiliated with major candidates' parties. Whichever candidate wins the popular vote in each state receives a certain number of electors tied to the population count. Those electors tally their results after the November elections and send those to Congress for certification and to be officially counted.

It's here where the vice president, in their role as the president of the Senate, springs into action. It's a largely ceremonial duty, because the Electoral College counts are legally binding, but it falls upon the vice president to open the certificates from the state Electoral College meetings and count them in front of the assembled U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. This all happens on the January 6 following the election the previous November.

In contemporary times, the president and vice president run as a united front, presenting a ticket from the same political party and promoting the same platform of ideas. In the early years of the United States, the vice presidency was a consolation prize — of the two leading candidates, the man who came in second-place in the election got the job. In 1804, the 12th Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution, establishing the modern practice of a two-person ticket taking both the presidency and the vice presidency.

Because the vice president assumes the office of the presidency should anything happen to the elected top of the ticket, they have to meet the same basic requirements expected of the elected and inaugurated president. Per the Qualifications Clause of the Constitution, found in Article II, Section 1, the vice president, as well as the president, must be 35 years or older, be a natural-born citizen of the United States, and have lived in the country for the last 14 years or more.

The vice president must be accessible to the president and other high-ranking government officials, and so they live and work very close to the White House, where the POTUS lives and maintains expansive office space. While the vice president keeps offices at the White House, they reside with their families a few miles away, in a large mansion on the grounds of the United States Naval Observatory. Designed by Washington, D.C.-based architect Leon Dessez and built in 1893, Number One Observatory Circle was initially constructed as a residence for the head of the Naval Observatory, but in 1923 the chief of the Navy so desired the stately home that he moved himself in. 

The 9,000-square-foot, 33-room home — which also houses the atomic clock, the world's most accurate timepiece — became the official vice presidential home in 1974. Congress approved funding to enliven the older building, but appointed Vice President Gerald Ford moved on to the presidency so quickly that he never moved in. His vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, used the structure to entertain guests but never lived there. The first vice president to live at Number One Observatory Circle: Jimmy Carter's second, Walter Mondale. Every successive holder of the office, up to and including Kamala Harris, called the mansion home for their term in office.

The vice presidency is a glorified backup plan. In addition to breaking ties in Senate votes, on the rare occasion that they occur, the office-holder is also there to prevent a power vacuum and continue the government with limited interruption should the president be indisposed. One of the main duties of the vice president is to be ready and able to ascend to the presidency should the office ever become vacant due to death, conviction after impeachment, resignation, or removal by the presidential cabinet, all per the terms of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

In April 1841, President William Henry Harrison died just 32 days into his term. This elevated the also newly inaugurated vice president, John Tyler, to the presidency. Following Tyler, presidential deaths catapulted several vice presidents into the Oval Office, including Millard Fillmore (for Zachary Taylor), Chester A. Arthur (for James Garfield), Teddy Roosevelt (for William McKinley), Calvin Coolidge (for Warren Harding), Harry Truman (for Franklin Roosevelt), and Lyndon Johnson (for John F. Kennedy). Following the resignation of Richard Nixon, non-elected vice president Gerald Ford — appointed to replace the resigned Spiro Agnew —became president when Nixon resigned in 1974.

As an office and as a tool to exert political might and effect change, the vice presidency is whatever the holder, and the administration with which they're associated, wish to make of it. While a vice president only has a few legally required and constitutionally mandated roles and responsibilities, they have plenty of time, connections, and clout to serve as somewhere between an advisor and lieutenant to the president of the United States.

Some vice presidents may act as a senior member of the president's team, helping to propose or draft bills or strategies and then talk those up to members of Congress. President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale consulted weekly on policy. Other vice presidents have taken the lead on certain aspects of governing to which they were well suited and experienced. While serving under President Bill Clinton, for example, Al Gore used his position to advocate for environmental protection and the development of new technologies. Lyndon Johnson talked up President John F. Kennedy's assertive civil rights programs.

As part of the elected, executive branch of the United States' federal government, vice presidents are occasionally called upon to represent the office of the presidency. When a president is unable, unwilling, or uninterested in traveling for or attending events in an official state capacity, the vice president does so on their behalf. It's part of the hidden truth of Kamala Harris that the vice president was one of the most active in this regard. While serving in the administration of President Joe Biden, Harris attended nearly 1,000 events in her first 649 days in office alone.

Additionally, a handful of vice presidents have been tasked into the position of acting president, per the terms of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified in 1967. "Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President," the amendment reads. Three presidents utilized this law, all for the span of just hours in each case. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Harris all served as president while their boss was under anesthesia for medical procedures.