Vice President Kamala Harris on July 12 tied the record for most tie-breaking votes in the Senate.
“I feel like it’s a wonderful historical moment and I’m thankful to [Senate Majority] Leader [Chuck] Schumer for reminding me that today was that day,” Ms. Harris told The Epoch Times shortly after the vote.
The tie-breaking vote put the number of such votes for Ms. Harris at 31, which was last held by John C. Calhoun, who served as vice president under presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson from 1825 to 1832.
Ms. Harris broke the tie on the vote to advance the nomination of employment lawyer Kalpana Kotagal to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was the lone Democrat who vote against the nomination and therefore, with the vote tally at 50-50, Ms. Harris was needed to break the tie in the Senate, which the Democrats control, 51-49.
In a statement to The Epoch Times, Mr. Manchin remarked that Kotagal would go against his state’s interests.
“It is clear from her prior work with far-left progressive organizations, including a group that wants to ban fossil fuels, that Ms. Kotagal does not represent West Virginia values and would prioritize a partisan agenda over creating commonsense, bipartisan solutions that bring our nation forward,” he said.
“Ultimately, I did not support Ms. Kotagal because the EEOC should remain as free as possible of partisan ideologies when making important decisions for America’s workers and businesses,” continued Mr. Manchin.
With Ms. Kotagal’s confirmation, the Democrats now hold control of the EEOC, which combats employment discrimination, with a 3-2 margin. Currently, the commission has two Democrat and two Republican commissioners. Ms. Kotagal, a Democrat, is filling a seat left by Janet Dhillon, a Republican whose term ended last year.
Mr. Schumer celebrated Ms. Harris’s milestone.
“This is a history-making moment for the United States Senate,” he said on the Senate floor. “Today, Vice President Kamala Harris matches the record for the most tiebreaking votes ever cast in the United States by a vice president.”
As president of the Senate, vice presidents cast tiebreaking votes when the chamber is deadlocked. While tiebreakers have generally been rarely used throughout American history, Ms. Harris has had to cast the deciding vote numerous times with the Senate locked at 50-50 during the first two years of the Biden administration.
The vice president cast the deciding vote on big-ticket legislation, like the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9-trillion pandemic relief measure, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which limited the costs of prescription drugs and created financial incentives for clean energy.
Even as the Democrats expanded their majority to 51-49 after the midterm elections, absences and defections have forced Ms. Harris to continue playing the role of tiebreaker. Earlier this year she helped confirm two federal judges, one in Massachusetts and the other in California.
Before getting into an elevator to leave the Senate, Harris said a few words to commemorate the moment.
“I’ve always said my mother had gave me great advice which is that I may be the first to do many things. I’m going to make sure I’m not the last,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
