WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris broke a virtually 200-year-old file for casting essentially the most tiebreaking votes within the Senate when she voted Tuesday to advance the affirmation of a brand new federal choose in Washington, D.C.
Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, known as Harris’ thirty second tiebreaking vote a “nice milestone.”
Harris returned to Capitol Hill later within the day to solid her thirty third vote as properly, securing the choose’s affirmation.
The earlier recordholder was John C. Calhoun, who solid 31 tiebreaking votes throughout his eight years as vp, from 1825 to 1832. Harris, a Democrat, tied Calhoun’s record in July.
Schumer offered Harris with a golden gavel after Tuesday’s vote. Harris, who beamed as she made historical past from the Senate dais, stated afterward she was “really honored.”
Casting tiebreaker votes is among the many solely constitutional duties for vice presidents, and Harris has been repeatedly known as on to interrupt deadlocks as a result of the Senate is intently divided between Democrats and Republicans.
The tempo of Harris’ votes dropped off this yr, when Democrats expanded their slim majority within the Senate by a single seat. However she nonetheless managed to surpass Calhoun’s file in lower than half the time that he took to set it.
Harris has helped advance the American Rescue Plan, which was a $1.9 trillion pandemic aid measure, and the Inflation Discount Act, which restricted the prices of prescribed drugs and created monetary incentives for clear power.
Most of Harris’ votes have concerned President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. On Tuesday, she boosted Loren AliKhan’s nomination to be a U.S. District Courtroom choose. AliKhan was confirmed hours later.
Schumer credited Harris with serving to to substantiate extra girls and other people of colour to the bench to assist make the judiciary “look extra like America.”
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