If the Senate is tied 50-50, and VP Harris has the casting vote,

[My Pet Orangutan]

does that mean she will be spending a significant amount of time in the chamber, presiding as president of the Senate?

[MissB]

1. Probably

It would certainly take her away from other duties or efforts.

[lagomorph777]

2. I think she can delegate, except for the actual votes.

Still, that will be a significant time-sink.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Probably

She will probably be having to cast a lot of tie votes I imagine. I'm sure she will be up to it.

[Alex4Martinez]

4. Lets win Georgia's senate seats for an extra measure... nt

[Karma13612]

12. Isn't that necessary to even be talking about Kamala?

Right now I thought we were at 48 D to 50 R

Without GA’s two seats, I thought we wouldn’t have ties so Kamala would not intervene?

Thanks if you can enlighten me!

[In It to Win It]

20. That is correct.

[unblock]

5. she only needs to be there for full floor votes

which usually aren't all that often.

though if we to win the senate, we will have an awful lot of laws to pass....

[brush]

6. Good question. One would think as president of the Senate...

she would spend a considerable amount of time there when the Senate is conducting its business, but since McTurtle tables so many bills coming over from the House the Senate doesn't really do very much but ram through unqualified repug judges.

And that doesn't take much time.

[unc70]

8. He wouldn't be tabling anything as minority leader

[brush]

10. Finger crossed, unc70, fingers crossed for the Georgia senate races.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. The Senate always has a "President Pro tempore"

which is what ASSley does (in place of TupPence being there) and the Senator in that position acts on behalf of the VP (the holder of that position, being selected/voted on by the chamber).

The only time (if we can by miracles of all miracles, pull this off in GA) that VP Harris would actually need to be there is if the whip expects a vote to be tied and would need the VP to break it.

Most of the time when the Senate is in session, they are not voting, but are just blabbing including "morning business" (I think each gets up to an hour to pontificate on whatever they want (if they schedule to do it), various discussions related to legislation including clarifications of the rules, reading bills and related material into the record, debate, etc., and the rest of the time they are holding hearings. They usually try to pick one day during each week to debate/vote on legislation (or in the case of the Senate and their special role - confirmations), and the rest of the time they are doing other stuff.

[brush]

19. The VP is the president of the Senate though, right?

[BumRushDaShow]

21. Correct.

That is their "official" position in the Legislative branch (as a non-Senator) but they are pretty much never there. That's why the Senate installs "an acting"!

[groundloop]

7. Even though it will be a drain on her time it'll be worth it to finally see some progress

[SomedayKindaLove]

9. Can Joe decide to have two VPs?

I mean Trump does everything he wants. Does the Constitution limit Joe to only one VP? He could keep Kamala in DC and have say, Buttigeig or whoever, be Assistant VP and do all the ceremonial/travel stuff.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. No.

[Sneederbunk]

11. Beware another Joe, Manchin.

[brooklynite]

13. Is there a policy vote of his you object to?

[Sneederbunk]

14. Votes against party.

https://projects.propublica.org/represent/members/M001183/votes-against-party/115

[Wounded Bear]

16. Not really. Day to day business is done all the time with the VP...nt

[LiberalFighter]

17. She would have help from the Senate Majority Leader (Democratic) in that scenario.