President pro tempore of the United States Senate
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Image:Ppt-seal.png The President pro Tempore of the United States Senate is the second-highest-ranking official of the Senate and the highest-ranking senator. The Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate ex officio, and thus is the highest-ranking member of the Senate; during his absence, the President pro Tempore presides over the Senate.
The President pro Tempore is elected by the Senate; by custom, he is typically the most senior senator in the majority party. Normally, neither the Vice President of the United States nor the President pro Tempore presides; instead, the duty is generally delegated to other senators. The President pro Tempore is third in line of succession to the Presidency.
The current President pro Tempore of the Senate is Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, who has held the office since January 3, 2003.
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Power and responsibilities
Image:Ted Stevens.jpgThe President pro Tempore is an office of the Senate mandated by Article I, section 3 of the Constitution. Although in some ways equivalent to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the powers of the President pro Tempore are far more limited. In the Senate, most power rests with party leaders and individual senators. The President pro Tempore represents the Senate at formal events and, in the absence of the Vice President, presides over the Senate and, with the Speaker of the House, over joint sessions of Congress. Due to the high visibility of joint sessions, they are one of very few instances in modern times where the Vice President does make an effort to attend and preside, so Presidents pro Tempore rarely have the opportunity to preside at a joint session. The last such event occurred on September 20, 2001, when President George W. Bush made a special address to a joint session of U.S. Congress regarding the September 11th Terrorist Attacks. Senator Robert Byrd, the President pro Tempore at the time, took the place of Vice President Dick Cheney, who was still under Secret Service and military protection as a precaution against an attempt on President Bush's life.
The President pro Tempore is one of the two authorities to whom declarations of presidential inability or of ability to resume the presidency must be transmitted under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. (The Speaker of the House is the other.)
The President pro Tempore is third in the line of presidential succession, following the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.
In the early years of the republic, the President pro Tempore was usually a senator noted for his skill at parliamentary procedure. Over the years, however, the office became less work-a-day and more ceremonial; gradually, it became the custom for it to be given to a senior senator. Since 1945 it has been the invariable rule that the most senior senator of the majority party holds the office.
History
The office of President pro Tempore was established in 1789 by the Constitution of the United States. Originally, the President pro Tempore was appointed on a daily or weekly basis when the Vice President of the United States was not present to preside over the Senate. Until the 1960s, it was common practice for the Vice President to preside over daily Senate sessions, so the President pro Tempore rarely presided over the Senate unless the Vice Presidency became vacant.
Until 1891, the President pro Tempore only served until the return of the Vice President to the chair or the adjournment of a session of Congress. Between 1792 and 1886, the President pro Tempore was second in the line of presidential succession following the Vice President and preceding the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Thus, when President Andrew Johnson was impeached and tried in 1868, Senate President pro Tempore Benjamin Wade was next in line to the Presidency. Wade's radicalism is thought by most historians to be a major reason why the Senate, which did not want to see Wade in the White House, acquitted Johnson. The President pro Tempore and the Speaker were removed from the line of succession in 1886, but were restored in 1947. This time, however, the President pro Tempore followed the Speaker.
Following the resignation and death of then-President pro Tempore William P. Frye, a Congress divided between progressive Republicans, conservative Republicans, and Democrats reached a compromise by which each of their candidates would rotate holding the office from 1911 to 1913. (See Presidents pro Tempore of the United States Senate, 1911-1913.)
Variants
Acting President pro Tempore
The President pro Tempore, just like the Vice President, over time has ceased presiding over the Senate on a daily basis, notably due to its lack of power or glamor. More importantly, since the President pro Tempore is now usually the most senior senator of the majority party, he or she most likely also chairs a major Senate committee, along with performing other duties related to seniority. Therefore, the President pro tempore has less time now than in the past to preside daily over the Senate. Instead, junior senators of the majority party are designated acting President pro Tempore to preside over the Senate on a daily basis. This allows junior senators to learn proper parliamentary procedure.
Permanent Acting President pro Tempore
In June 1963, due to the illness of President pro Tempore Carl T. Hayden, Lee Metcalf was designated “Permanent Acting President pro Tempore”. No term was imposed on this designation, so Metcalf retained it until he died in office in 1978.
Deputy President pro Tempore
The ceremonial position of Deputy President pro Tempore was created for Hubert H. Humphrey in 1977 after he failed in his bid to become Majority Leader.
This position was later given to George J. Mitchell when President pro Tempore John C. Stennis became seriously ill.
President pro Tempore emeritus
From June 6, 2001 until January 3, 2003, Senator Strom Thurmond was given the honorary title of “President pro Tempore emeritus”.
Since January 15, 2003, Robert Byrd has been President pro Tempore emeritus.<ref>See Senate.gov p. 15.</ref>
Appearances in fiction
The Man
The 1964 novel The Man by Irving Wallace begins with the deaths of the President and the Speaker in a building collapse at a summit meeting in Germany. The Vice President died earlier of natural causes, and that post is vacant. The Presidency thus falls to Douglass Dilman, a black U.S. senator from Maryland who was given the office of President pro Tempore as a gesture of conciliation toward civil rights activists. Dilman's abrupt rise to the Presidency leads several Southern politicians, including the United States Secretary of State, who is now next in line for the Presidency, to seek his impeachment on trumped-up charges.
In 1972, a film based on the book and having the same title starred James Earl Jones as Dilman, Martin Balsam as the loyal White House Chief of Staff he inherits from his predecessor, William Windom as the U.S. Secretary of State, and Burgess Meredith as a racist Southern senator. The impeachment storyline was supplanted by Dillman's fight to secure his party's nomination for a full term of his own. Rod Serling, better known as the creator and host of the television series The Twilight Zone, wrote the screenplay.
See also
References
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