Who Is The President Of The Senate

The President of the United States Senate is the highest-ranking officer of the United States Senate. Under the United States Constitution, the Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate, and is responsible for presiding over the Senate and making any tie-breaking decisions.

In addition to presiding over the Senate, the President of the Senate is an ex officio member of nearly all committees and may speak and vote on any matter on any bill before the Senate. The current President of the Senate is Vice President Kamala Harris, who assumed the office on January 20, 2021, succeeding then-Vice President Mike Pence.

The position of the President of the Senate is largely a ceremonial one, used to perform parliamentary procedures such as swearing in senators or swearing in presidents or vice presidents at joint sessions of Congress. In most cases, the President of the Senate will be asked by the presiding officer (the Senate majority leader or the Vice President, depending on the circumstances) to perform the role of "one who is familiar with the procedures" of the Senate, or to provide a ruling on a point of order.

The duties of the President of the Senate are defined by the United States Constitution, which assigns the role of president to the Vice President and states that the Vice President shall, "in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the ballots that are sealed and presented to him as President of the Senate, and shall count the votes for the President and the Vice President, and shall announce the result thereof." The Vice President also may preside over the Senate, but he frequently delegates this task to the majority leader of the Senate.

Throughout the history of the United States, the office of President of the Senate has been held by The Vice President. There have been 48 Vice Presidents.