Politico laments that the need to break ties in the Senate is restricting Vice President Kamala Harris’s travel schedule. But the math doesn’t seem all that convincing:
In her 16 months as vice president, Harris has broken 23 ties in her official role as president of the Senate, according to the official Senate count. That puts her third of all-time, only trailing America’s very first vice president, John Adams (29 votes), and its seventh, John C. Calhoun (31 votes). Last week alone, Harris cast six tie-breaking votes.
Okay, so two weeks ago, before the big rush of last week, Harris had broken 17 ties in the Senate in 15 months. That’s roughly one per month.
The Senate takes quite a few recess days, as well. The Senate was scheduled to meet for 158 days in 2021 and 171 days in 2022. Because many senators prefer to get back to their home states on weekends, there are rarely big or consequential floor votes on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons. In the coming months, the Senate is scheduled to have “state work periods” from May 30 to June 3, June 27 to July 8, and August 8 to September 5. Harris won’t need to hang around to break any ties during those stretches.
Between the lines, this sounds like a Harris office criticism of Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who should have a good sense of when a 50–50 vote is likely and be able to set the floor schedule in a manner that affords some flexibility for the vice president. Politico said several officials in the Senate and White House described the coordination over the schedule as “give and take.”
This is all separate from the question of just who in the administration thinks it is a good idea to get Harris going out around the country and giving more speeches.