VP Kamala Harris Broke a Nearly 200-Year-Old Record for Casting the Most Tiebreaking Votes in the Senate

TIME

Vice President Kamala Harris earned a small gold colored gavel on Tuesday when she cast her 32nd tiebreaking vote, breaking the previous record held by John C. Calhoun nearly 200 years ago.

Transcript

00:00 Are there any senators in the chamber who wish to vote or change a vote?

00:03 If not on this vote, the yeas are 50 and the nays are 50.

00:08 The Senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative and the

00:12 motion is agreed to.

00:15 Madam Vice President.

00:17 Majority Leader.

00:19 Today is historic.

00:21 Vice President Harris has just cast her 32nd tie-breaking vote, the most tie-breakers ever.

00:29 I join all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle thanking the Vice President for

00:35 her leadership and for making the work of the Senate possible.

00:40 The record Vice President Harris sets today is significant, not just because of the number

00:45 but because of what she's made possible with tie-breaking votes.

00:50 Without her tie-breaking votes, there'd be no American Rescue Plan, no Inflation Reduction

00:54 Act, and we would not have confirmed many of the excellent federal judges now presiding

01:00 on the bench.

01:02 Every time duty is called, Vice President Harris has answered more than any other vice

01:08 president in our nation's long and storied history.

01:12 So thank you, Vice President Harris.

01:15 This is a great milestone and yours is even a greater legacy.

01:19 Let us continue working together to make life better for all Americans.

01:25 Thank you, Majority Leader.

01:26 So no one deserves this more than she does.

01:27 It is my honor to present the Golden Gap to Vice President Harris on this great day, 32

01:38 tie-breaking votes.

01:39 Thank you, Majority Leader.

01:40 Thank you, Chuck.

01:41 Thank you.

01:42 I'm honored.

01:43 I am truly honored.

01:44 And of course, today, what it has meant in terms of confirming now our 161st judge to

01:51 the federal bench.

01:52 So I'm truly honored and proud to have been able to do this and I thank you leadership,

01:58 New York leadership, and all your work.

02:01 And it's very appropriate that the Vice President cast all those votes for judges because two-thirds

02:07 have been people of color and two-thirds have been women.

02:10 We have moved the bench forward to look more like America under her many great tie-breaking

02:17 votes.

02:18 Thank you.

02:19 Thank you, Majority Leader.

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