Talk:United States Vice Presidents' tie-breaking votes

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United States Vice Presidents' tie-breaking votes is part of WikiProject U.S. Congress, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to the United States Congress.
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Contents

[edit] Vice Presidential vacancy?

What happens if there's a Senate tie during a Vice Presidential vacancy? --Jfruh 23:24, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

  • I guess it's considered rejected. I know that at the U.S. Supreme Court, a 4-4 vote means that the lower court's ruling stands. I wonder if the same rule would apply in the Senate. Furthermore, it's possible to have a tie vote in the House of Representatives, too. There may be an odd number of Representatives, on occasion there may be absences or vacancies. —Markles 00:20, 15 March 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Wrong Terms

I'm correcting the table to remove "Enacted" as the comment when an amendment has passed. Bills and joint resolutions are "enacted" and everything else is "Agreed to." Thus, Vice President's tie-breaking votes in the affirmative that pass an Amendment is "agreed to" and not "enacted." You cannot "enact" an Amendment to a bill. 71.242.241.108 15:39, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cheney's procedural votes

Since Cheney's vote was the balance of power between his inauguration until Jeffords defected from the Republican party, he obviously cast tie-breaking votes on procedural issues to establish the Senate leadership and committee chairmanships. But he's only listed as having seven tie-breaking votes, all of which are on legislation, according to the second table. Are procedural votes not considered in the first table? --Jfruh (talk) 16:30, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Chronological List

I think an additional chronological list or chart would also be useful to show any historical trend. 149.217.72.1 11:52, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] John Adams

I have noticed whilst reading a contradiction between this page which lists John Adams as casting 29 tie breaking votes in the table, and his biographical page which puts the number at 31 John_Adams#Vice_Presidency, I am not from the US so don't have any idea how I could verify which is accurate due to not knowing where I could look up records of Senate voting. But if someone who has access to sources could check the figure and correct the one which is inaccurate, I think it would improve wikipedia. It doesn't really look too good to have two pages contradict each other in my opinion. MttJocy 14:00, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is "casting vote" a British English term?

I don't think Americans use the term "casting vote," so the use of that term in an article about an American institution strikes me as odd. I'm an American, a lawyer, and a constitutional law buff, and I have to confess I've never seen the term "casting vote" used by Americans. I think we only say "tie-breaking vote."

So I'm tempted to remove the words "casting vote" from this article, but before doing so I'd like to hear if there are any Americans out there who DO think that "casting vote" is used in American English. CoramVobis (talk) 07:15, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

At first I was going to agree with you and remove it, as that term isn't usually used that way in the US; however, I ended up searching senate.gov and found the exact phrase being used multiple times for the Vice President's role in the Senate. Less importantly, Dictionary.com doesn't note it as "Chiefly British" (as it usually would if the term wasn't also American). The problem that arises is that we also use the common phrase "cast a tie-breaking vote" so this may confuse readers ("a casting vote" versus "casting a vote"). To compromise, I reworded the sentence to include the synonymous "casting voice" and used it in even clearer context. Hope this helps. :) --Qwayzer (talk) 02:09, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Motion to Delete a Section

I would like to propose a deleting of the section titled "List of tie-breaking votes since 1981." It is both incomplete and useless. I cannot recall what is the proper waiting period, so I'll wait one week for someone to raise an objection. NuclearWarfare (talk) 01:19, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Since it has been one week, I shall go ahead and delete it. I will preserve the text on the talk page for future reference is anyone wishes. NuclearWarfare (talk) 22:41, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I agree, the table is pointless as it will always remain incomplete. Besides, the article links to the official Senate.gov page that lists all these votes anyway. --Qwayzer (talk) 03:16, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

==List of tie-breaking votes since 1981== This is an incomplete list of tie-breaking votes cast by Presidents of the Senate.

Senate President Date Bill Vote Ultimate result
George H. W. Bush July 13, 1983 Motion to table Pryor Amdt.1468 on nerve gas Yea: 50-49
November 8, 1983 Stevens/Tower/Goldwater Amdt.2517 on nerve gas Yea: 47-46
June 14, 1984 Motion to table Moynihan Amdt.3208 on MX missiles Yea: 49-48
May 10, 1985 Dole Amdt.93 on cutting deficit Yea: 50-49
July 23, 1986 Motion to reconsider vote on Manion nomination Nay: 49-50
August 7, 1986 Pryor Amdt.2612 on nerve gas Nay: 50-51
September 22, 1987 Motion to table Johnston Amdt.710 on SDI funding Yea: 51-50
Dan Quayle None
Al Gore June 25, 1993 H.R. 2264 (Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993) Yea: 50-49 Conference Report (see below) enacted as Pub.L. 103-66
August 6, 1993 H.R. 2264 (Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993) Conference Report Yea: 51-50 Enacted.
Pub.L. 103-66
August 3, 1994 Motion to table S.Amdt. 2446 (Johnston Ethanol Limitation Amendment) to H.R 4624 (Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 1995) Yea: 51-50 S.Amdt. 2446 tabled
May 20, 1999 S.Amdt. 362 (Lautenberg Gun Show Sales Amendment) to S. 254 (School Safety Act of 1999) Yea: 51-50 S. 254 rejected by House by voice vote for Senate's lack of constitutional jurisdiction
Dick Cheney April 3, 2001 S.Amdt. 173 (Grassley Prescription Drug Reserve Fund Amendment) to H.Con.Res. 83 (2002 budget) Yea: 51-50 Agreed To
April 5, 2001 S.Amdt. 347 (Hutchison Marriage Penalty Tax Elimination Amendment) to H.Con.Res. 83 (2002 budget) Yea: 51-50 Agreed To
May 21, 2002 Motion to table S.Amdt. 3406 (Allen Mortgage Loan Amendment) to H.R. 3009 (Trade Act of 2002) Yea: 50-49 Tabled
April 11, 2003 H.Con.Res. 95 (2004 budget) Yea: 51-50 Enacted
May 15, 2003 S.Amdt 664 (Nickles Dividend Exclusion Amendment) to S 1054 (Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003) Yea: 51-50 S 1054 incorporated into HR 2 (see below), which was enacted as Pub.L. 108-27.
May 23, 2003 HR 2 (Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003) Conference Report Yea: 51-50 Enacted.
Pub.L. 108-27
December 21, 2005 S 1932 (Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2005) Yea:
51-50		 Passed.
Bill sent to conference committee and enacted, Pub.L. 109-171.
March 13, 2008 Motion to reconsider S. Amdt 4189 to S. Con. Res. 70 Yea:
51-50		 Motion agreed to.

Source: Votes by Vice Presidents to Break Tie Votes in the Senate and Occasions When Vice Presidents Have Voted To Break Tie Votes In The Senate via Senate.gov