Question

Vice President What are the roles of the Vice President and how is Mike Pence fulfilling these roles?

Answer 1

The U.S. Vice President, also known as VPOTUS or Veep, is a key position in the federal government's executive branch. The vice president is probably best known as "a heartbeat away from the presidency," which means the vice president takes over if a sitting president dies or is impeached. Constitutionally, however, the Vice President's primary responsibility is the role of the Senate President. According to Article One, Section Three of the U.S. Constitution: "The U.S. Vice President shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote unless they are divided equally."

The Vice President, as president of the upper house of congress, only votes on bills or other motions if 50-50 Senators are blocked. This has happened 243 times and 35 different vice presidents have been involved. While the Vice President would have been actively chairing the Senate proceedings in the past, it is now his custom that they only get involved to break a tie. The Vice President's only other formally recognized duty is to preside over and approve the count of votes from the electoral college after a presidential election. The U.S. Vice President's Informal Roles, however, the position also has many obvious, informal duties. These would typically vary depending on the president's relationship with Veep of the day, but typically included: making public appearances representing the president performing ceremonial duties instead of the president acting as an advisor to the president's meeting with heads of state or government of other countries

As Senate president, Pence has already broken more ties than seven of his last nine predecessors, allowing him to set a modern record. His first tie-breaking vote was needed for a Cabinet nomination to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education for the first time. In addition to supplementing the Senate's razor-thin margin of the Republicans, Pence has been actively involved in legislative negotiations on health care, taxes and other issues, maintaining close contact with congressional leaders and an influential group of conservative legislators.

He put Pence in charge of a commission to investigate electoral fraud after Trump claimed that at least 3 million people voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. But this month Trump dissolved the commission in the wake of multiple lawsuits against it and states ' opposition to handing voting data over. Pence still heads a revived space commission that has been dormant since the administration of George H.W. Bush, highlighting the administration's space program. Notably, after the Obama administration had decided on other missions, Pence announced that NASA would return to the moon.