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The Bob Cesca Podcast: Rudy Tootie

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Ming500012/04/2020 12:39:15 am PST

I heard a short discussion of the role of the VP in the senate on the Thom Hartmann show. His noted that the iron hand Mitch McConnel wields on allowing debate and voting in the Senate is not a Constitutional power. Kamala Harris, as the president of the Senate, could preside and allow debate and voting. He hoped Kamala would flex her constitutional muscle.
I didn’t catch the whole discussion, but it struck me, why is one senator able to block the functioning of all Congress?

from wiki-The president pro tempore of the United States Senate is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate. Article One, Section Three of the United States Constitution provides that the vice president of the United States is the president of the Senate (despite not being a senator), and mandates that the Senate must choose a president pro tempore to act in the vice president’s absence. Unlike the vice president, the president pro tempore is an elected member of the Senate, able to speak or vote on any issue. Selected by the Senate at large, the president pro tempore has enjoyed many privileges and some limited powers. During the vice president’s absence, the president pro tempore is empowered to preside over Senate sessions. In practice, neither the vice president nor the president pro tempore usually presides; instead, the duty of presiding officer is rotated among junior U.S. senators of the majority party to give them experience in parliamentary procedure.

Also from wiki - Since 1890, the most senior U.S. senator in the majority party has generally been chosen to be president pro tempore and holds the office continuously until the election of another. This tradition has been observed without interruption since 1949