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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →In the United States, the vice president is an elected constitutional officer who serves as president of the Senate, may cast a vote to break a Senate tie, formally presides over the counting of presidential electoral votes, and is first in the line of presidential succession. The president also assigns the vice president advisory and other work, so the role’s day-to-day responsibilities can differ from one administration to another. This article covers the U.S. federal office; vice presidents in businesses, state governments, and other countries may have different roles.
What does the vice president do?
The office has two kinds of responsibilities: duties grounded in the Constitution and work shaped by the president and administration. The formal duties are defined; the scope of the advisory and executive work is not a fixed portfolio.
Presides over the Senate
The Constitution makes the vice president the president of the Senate. Article I, Section 3 states: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.” The National Archives transcription of the Constitution provides the full text at Article I, Section 3.
The vice president can therefore vote when the Senate is equally divided, but is not a senator with a regular vote on every measure. In modern practice, vice presidents do not preside over ordinary Senate business continuously; they appear for particular occasions, including tie votes. The Senate describes presiding as the office’s primary duty from 1789 until the 1950s, before the role developed into a more active advisory and executive-branch position.
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Presides over the electoral vote count
The vice president formally presides over the receipt and counting of electoral ballots in presidential elections. This is a procedural role in the count, not authority to choose the winner. The Senate’s description of the office and its electoral-count responsibility is available at About the Vice President (President of the Senate).
Advises the president and carries out assignments
Modern vice presidents commonly serve as principal advisers to the president and may take on work assigned by the president. These assignments can involve executive-branch responsibilities, but there is no single day-to-day portfolio that applies to every administration. The Senate’s overview of the office and historical account describe that evolution and variation.
What happens if the president cannot serve?
The vice president is first in line to assume the presidency when the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office. The Constitution also addresses presidential inability: under the relevant constitutional process, the vice president may serve as acting president while the president is unable to discharge the office’s powers and duties. The constitutional framework and its development are explained in the Congressional Research Service’s Constitution Annotated entry on the Succession Clause.
The Twelfth Amendment changed how the president and vice president are elected, while the Twenty-Fifth Amendment later addressed presidential inability and vacancies in the vice presidency. These provisions help distinguish succession to the presidency from the vice president’s separate Senate and advisory duties; the Senate’s historical overview traces those changes.
Is a vice president’s role always the same?
No. The office’s constitutional responsibilities remain, but the president determines much of the vice president’s advisory and assigned work. One administration may give the vice president a substantial policy or executive role; another may define the job differently. The title alone does not establish a uniform daily workload or authority over a particular policy area.
Outside the U.S. federal government, “vice president” can mean something else. A company vice president’s authority depends on the organization, and state or foreign-government offices are governed by their own rules. The constitutional duties described here apply to the vice president of the United States.
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