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The presiding officer of the United States Senate is the person who presides over the United States Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices, and precedents. Senate presiding officer is a role, not an actual office.
The Constitution names the vice president of the United States as the president of the Senate. In addition to serving as presiding officer, the vice president has the sole power to break a tie vote in the Senate and formally presides over the receiving and counting of electoral ballots cast in presidential elections.
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Listed below are the current leadership and officers for the 118th Congress. Also available on Senate.gov are historical essays on and lists of Senate leadership and Senate officers . Constitutionally Mandated Officers. About the Offices of the Vice President and President Pro Tempore.
The Constitution instructs the Senate to choose a president pro tempore to preside over the Senate in the absence of the vice president. Pro tempore is a Latin term meaning "for the time being,” signaling that the position was originally conceived as a temporary replacement. The framers of the Constitution assumed that the vice president ...
The Senate is presided over by the Vice President of the United States, who as “president of the Senate,” is allowed to vote on legislation in the event of a tie vote. Along with its own exclusive powers, the Senate shares many of the same constitutional powers granted to the House of Representatives.
The current president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate is Patty Murray of Washington. The most senior senator in the majority Senate Democratic Caucus and the first woman to hold the position, she was sworn in on January 3, 2023, at the start of the 118th Congress .
In the vice president's absence, the president pro tempore, who is traditionally the senior member of the Senate's majority party, presides over the Senate. In the early 1920s, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began.
