“I was there voting at 5:00 this morning,” said Harris during a roundtable discussion with the local Black Chambers of Commerce on Friday. “It was nice to be there.”
Still, Harris expressed some reluctance about his tiebreaker, as the White House expects bipartisanship to thrive in Congress.
“Since the founding of our nation, only 268 tiebreakers have been cast by a vice president. I intend to work tirelessly as his vice president, including, if necessary, fulfilling this constitutional duty,” she wrote before taking office. “At the same time, I hope that, instead of reaching a tie, the Senate will find common ground and do the work of the American people.”
Competitive demands?
But there is also a real possibility that the demand for Harris as a tiebreaker could arrest her in the Senate, overloading her agenda and functions as vice president, if she is often needed on Capitol Hill.
“You cannot be in the White House room if you have to be on Capitol Hill to break the vote. You cannot travel the world to meet leaders on the international stage, or you can” “Be traveling internally,” said Joel Goldstein, a presidential vice-historian. “It can wreak havoc on the vice president’s calendar.”
“This is a problem that vice presidents do not have when the Senate is not evenly divided or when your party can count on votes from all parties to get the margins they need,” he added.
Presiding over the Senate is a function attributed to the vice president in the Constitution and, with it, comes the power to break the ties of the Chamber. With today’s Senate divided into 50-50, Harris’s chances of making that 1.2-mile journey from the White House to the Capitol to serve as a tiebreaker are high.
Last week, Harris made four trips to the Capitol – one to honor Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, killed in the January 6 riot and honored at the building’s roundabout, and three times to be expected to be the casting vote. in the Senate.
In the past, Harris’ predecessor, former Vice President Mike Pence, postponed a trip to the Middle East in 2017 to stay close while the Senate voted for a tax package. Ultimately, his vote was not necessary, but Pence got 13 tiebreakers – a record for a modern vice president.
Dick Cheney, the last vice president to serve during an evenly divided Senate, had eight tiebreakers, while former Vice President Al Gore had four.
“Every time I vote, we win,” joked Gore in 1994. “It’s a very encouraging phenomenon.”
Despite his deep affinity for Senate traditions, Biden never cast a tie vote while serving as vice president, but remained a frequent presence on Capitol Hill during his eight years at the Obama White House, often in the role of negotiator.
Chocolates and a hot fire: Harris mingles with Senate colleagues
Harris arrived in the Senate on Thursday night, bringing White House chocolates to his Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle, a White House aide said. The vice president later met around a campfire in her Senate cabinet with a number of senators, including Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia.
Although Biden relied on his decades of relationships and Capitol experience in negotiations, Harris is younger on the Washington scene, having served four years in the Senate before moving to the White House. But his visits to the Capitol can provide opportunities to further develop relationships with senators, which could be the key to advancing the White House agenda.
Senate Democrats are hailing their expected presence on Capitol Hill as it consolidates its majority.
“There are times when she may have to be around or even because we don’t know what a vote will be, sometimes,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. “It will be more important than ever, given the tightening of the Senate, where we are literally tied.”
After a brief trip home, the vice president returned to the Senate at around 3:30 am (Brasília time) on Friday, before the final stretch of the vote. She attended the debate on the floor of her Senate cabinet and wrote notes to her Senate colleagues. This included a message of congratulations to Ann Berry, the first black person to serve as a Senate secretary.
Shortly after 5:00 am, Harris walked to the chamber to preside over the Senate by three votes, casting the tiebreaker by two, with the last one arriving at 5:34 am
Four hours later, she was back at the White House next to the president in the Oval Office.