President Pro Tempore

Senator Ted Stevens has served as President Pro Tempore (PPT) of the Senate since January 2003. He was nominated by Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) to serve as President Pro Tempore for the 108th Congress and was unanimously elected by his Republican colleagues on November 13, 2002. He was sworn in as President Pro Tempore on January 7, 2003.

Duties

The literal translation of President Pro Tempore is "president for a time." The President Pro Tempore is a constitutionally appointed officer who presides over the Senate in the Vice President's absence.

As the Chamber's presiding officer, the President Pro Tempore is authorized to perform certain duties, including ruling on points of order and enforcing decorum in the Senate Chamber and Galleries. The President Pro Tempore also signs Legislation passed by the Senate before it is sent to the President for his signature.

Since 1947, the President Pro Tempore has been third in the line of presidential succession, behind the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. The President Pro Tempore also serves as a member of the majority party's leadership team.

History

The Constitution provides for two officers to preside over the Senate: the vice president, who is designated as the president of the Senate, and the president pro tempore. From John Adams in 1789 to Alben Barkley in 1952, presiding over the Senate was the chief function of vice presidents. It was not until 1953 and Vice President Richard Nixon that the role of the vice president was changed from attending all Senate sessions to attending only those at critical times when a vote might be needed. Prior to 1963, the vice president presided over the senate regularly. In the absence of the vice president, the Constitution allowed the Senate to choose a presidential pro tempore to perform the duties of the Chair. Since vice presidents presided routinely in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Senate thought it necessary to choose a PPT only for the limited periods when the vice president might be ill or otherwise absent. This habit of choosing a president pro tempore for a limited period resulted in the Senate frequently elected several PPTs during a single session.

Vacancies in the office of PPT presented a persistent problem. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Senate assumed that it was empowered to elect a PPT only during the absence of a vice president, which led to problems at the end of each session. If no PPT was elected and something happened to the vice president, then there would be no one to preside over the Senate when the next session began. The Senate then created elaborate charade that lasted for decades during which the vice president would voluntarily absent himself from the chamber at the end of the session to enable the Senate to elect a president pro tempore, who would then be able to preside, if necessary, when the Senate reconvened. However, even this was problematic because some vice presidents refused to perform this little courtesy. In 1890, significant changes took place when the Senate agreed that, thereafter, the PPTs would be elected and hold the office continuously until the election of another PPT instead of holding the office only for the period of the vice president’s absence.

When initially established, the PPT was usually a senator noted for his skill at parliamentary procedure. It was not out of the ordinary for several different PPTs to be chosen in a single congressional session on the basis of their personal characteristics, popularity, and reliability. Since the end of World War II, the PPT has customarily been the majority party senator with the longest continuous service. In 2001, the Senate also created an Office of President Pro Tempore Emeritus; to which Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) have been elected to that position. Election to the office of PPT is considered of the highest honors bestowed by the Senate.

Eighty-eight different Senators have served as president pro tempore. Sixty served prior to 1900 when vice presidents routinely presided over the chamber and PPT were elected to only serve for limited periods when the Vice President was absent or ill, or the office was vacated. Senator Carl Hayden (D-AZ) holds the record as the longest-serving president pro tempore having served 12 years. Senator Milton Young, the shortest-serving, was PPT for one day on December 5, 1980.

The Modern Day President Pro Tempore

Since the PPT is usually the most senior Senator of the majority party, he or she also most likely chairs a major Senate committee, along with other duties of the Senate. The president pro tempore often has less free-time now than in the past, so like the vice president, the PPT has over time ceased presiding over the Senate on a daily basis. Most often junior senators of the majority party are designated acting PPT to preside over the Senate. This process also allows for the senior members of the Senate to hold leadership positions and allows junior senators to learn proper parliamentary procedure.

The Presidential Line of Succession

Article I, Section 3 of the United States Constitution declares that: The Senate shall choose their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States. The Presidential Succession Act of 1792 stated that should the offices of president and vice president become vacant, the president pro tempore would succeed to the presidency followed by the speaker of the House. This succession remained in effect until 1886. When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson succeeded him, and the PPT, Senator Lafayette S. Foster (Opposition-CT), became next in line to the White House, making Senator Benjamin Wade (Whig, Opposition, Republican-OH) the new PPT. Had the Senate voted to remove Johnson during his impeachment trial in 1868, Senator Wade would have become president of the United States. Senator Wade voted in favor of conviction and President Johnson, after his acquittal, objected to placing the PPT in the line of succession because he would therefore be “interested in producing a vacancy.”

In 1886 Senator George F. Hoar (R-MA) called for a revision of the succession act arguing that the Senate did not elect its presidents pro tempore based on any consideration of their fitness to become chief executive. Hoar then pointed out that no PPT had ever served as president, and only one had even been a candidate for president, whereas six secretaries of state had been elected president. Following Hoar’s reasoning, congress passed The Succession Act of 1886 which removed the PPT and speaker of the House entirely from the line of presidential succession, leaving at its head the secretary of state and the other cabinet members.

This was the order of succession until 1947 when the law was revised again due to the urging of President Harry S. Truman. Truman had held the post of vice president for only eighty-two days before Franklin Roosevelt died and he took over the presidency. Troubled that the next in the line of succession was his secretary of state Edward Stettinius, a person who could feasibly become president without having ever been elected to any office by a vote of the people, Truman proposed restoring the president pro tempore and the speaker of the House to the line of succession in the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. However, the PPT was now third in line, following the speaker of the House. Today the president pro tempore continues to follow the speaker of the House in presidential succession, followed by the secretary of state and other cabinet secretaries. A PPT has yet to become President of the United States through the rules of succession.

Complete List of Presidents Pro Tempore

John Langdon (Pro-Administration, Anti-Administration, Democratic Republican - NH)
April 6, 1789 - April 21, 1789
August 7, 1789 - August 9, 1789
November 5, 1792 - December 4, 1792
March 1, 1793 - March 3, 1793
March 4, 1793 - December 2, 1793

Richard Henry Lee (Anti-Administration - VA)
April 18, 1792 - October 8, 1792

Ralph Izard (Pro-Administration - SC)
May 31, 1794 - November 9, 1794

Henry Tazewell (Anti-Administration - VA)
February 20, 1795 - June 7, 1795
December 7, 1795 - December 8, 1795

Samuel Livermore (Pro-Administration, Federalist - NH)
May 6, 1796 - December 4, 1796

William Bingham (Federalist - PA)
February 16, 1797 - March 3, 1797

William Bradford (Pro-Administration - RI)
July 6, 1797 - October 1797

Jacob Read (Federalist - SC)
November 22, 1797 - December 12, 1797

Theodore Sedgwick (Federalist - MA)
June 27, 1798 - December 5, 1798

John Laurance (Federalist - NY)
December 6, 1798 - December 27, 1798

James Ross (Pro-Administration, Federalist - PA)
March 1, 1799 - December 1, 1799

Samuel Livermore (Pro-Administration, Federalist - NH)
December 2, 1799 - December 29, 1799

Uriah Tracy (Federalist - CT)
May 14, 1800 - November 16, 1800

John E. Howard (Federalist - MD)
November 21, 1800 - November 27, 1800

James Hillhouse (Federalist - CT)
February 28, 1801 - March 3, 1801

Abraham Baldwin (Democratic Republican - GA)
December 7, 1801 - January 14, 1802
April 17, 1802 - December 13, 1802

Stephen R. Bradley (Anti-Administration, Democratic Republican - VT)
December 14, 1802 - January 18, 1803
February 25, 1803 - February 25, 1803
March 2, 1803 - October 16, 1803

John Brown (Anti-Administration, Democratic Republican - KY)
October 17, 1803 - December 6, 1803
January 23, 1804 - February 26, 1804

Jesse Franklin (Democratic Republican - NC)
March 10, 1804 - November 4, 1804

Joseph Anderson (Democratic Republican - TN)
January 15, 1805 - February 3, 1805
February 28, 1805 - March 2, 1805
March 2, 1805 - December 1, 1805

Samuel Smith (Democratic Republican, Crawford Republican, Jacksonian - MD)
December 2, 1805 - December 15, 1805
March 18, 1806 - November 30, 1806
March 2, 1807 - October 25, 1807
April 16, 1808 - November 6, 1808

Stephen R. Bradley (Anti-Administration, Democratic Republican - VT)
December 28, 1808 - January 8, 1809

John Milledge (Democratic Republican - GA)
January 30, 1809 - March 3, 1809
March 4, 1809 - May 21, 1809

Andrew Gregg (Democratic Republican - PA)
June 26, 1809 - December 18, 1809

John Gaillard (Democratic Republican, Crawford Republican, Jacksonian - SC)
February 28, 1810 - March 2, 1810
April 17, 1810 - December 11, 1810
April 18, 1814 - November 25, 1814
November 25, 1814 - December 3, 1815
Note: Gaillard was elected after the death of Vice President Elbridge Gerry and continued to serve throughout the Fourteenth Congress, as there was no vice president.
December 4, 1815 - March 3, 1817
March 4, 1817 - March 4, 1817
March 6, 1817 - February 18, 1818
March 31, 1818 - January 5, 1819
January 25, 1820 - December 2, 1821
December 3, 1821 - December 27, 1821
February 1, 1822 - December 2, 1822
February 19, 1823 - November 30, 1823
December 1, 1823 - January 20, 1824
May 21, 1824 - March 3, 1825
March 9, 1825 - December 4, 1825

John Pope (Democratic Republican - KY)
February 23, 1811 - November 3, 1811

William Crawford (Democratic Republican - GA)
March 24, 1812 - March 23, 1813

Joseph B. Varnum (Democratic Republican - MA)
December 6, 1813 - February 3, 1814

James Barbour (Anti-Democrat, Democratic Republican - VA)
February 15, 1819 - December 5, 1819
December 6, 1819 - December 26, 1819

Nathaniel Macon (Democratic Republican, Crawford Republican, Jacksonian - NC)
May 20, 1826 - December 3, 1826
January 2, 1827 - February 13, 1827
March 2, 1827 - December 2, 1827

Samuel Smith (Democratic Republican, Crawford Republican, Jacksonian - MD)
May 15, 1828 - December 18, 1828
March 13, 1829 - December 10, 1829
May 29, 1830 - December 31, 1830
March 1, 1831 - December 4, 1831
December 5, 1831 - December 11, 1831

Littleton Tazewell (Jackson Republican - VA)
July 9, 1832 - July 16, 1832

Hugh L. White (Jacksonian, Anti-Jacksonian, Whig - TN)
December 3, 1832 - December 1, 1833
December 2, 1833 - December 15, 1833

George Poindexter (Jacksonian - MS)
June 28, 1834 - November 30, 1834

John Tyler (Jacksonian, Anti-Jacksonian - VA)
March 3, 1835 - December 6, 1835

William R. King (Democratic Republican, Jacksonian Republican, Jacksonian, Democrat - AL)
July 1, 1836 - December 4, 1836
January 28, 1837 - March 3, 1837
March 7, 1837 - September 3, 1837
October 13, 1837 - December 3, 1837
July 2, 1838 - December 18, 1838
February 25, 1839 - December 1, 1839
December 2, 1839 - December 26, 1839
July 3, 1840 - December 15, 1840
March 3, 1841 - March 3, 1841
March 4, 1841 - March 4, 1841
May 6, 1850 - May 19, 1850
July 11, 1850 - March 3, 1851
March 4, 1851 - December 20, 1852

Samuel Southard (Democratic Republican, Anti-Jacksonian, Whig - NJ)
March 11, 1841 - May 31, 1842

Willie P. Mangum (Jacksonian, Anti-Jacksonian, Whig - NC)
May 31, 1842 - December 3, 1843
December 4, 1843 - March 3, 1845
March 4, 1845 - March 4, 1845

Ambrose H. Sevier (D - AR)
December 27, 1845

David R. Atchison (D - MO)
August 8, 1846 - December 6, 1846
January 11, 1847 - January 13, 1847
March 3, 1847 - December 5, 1847
Note: Ambrose H. Sevier was not elected as president pro tempore in an official manner, but "permitted to occupy the chair for the day."
February 2, 1848 - February 8, 1848
June 1, 1848 - June 14, 1848
June 26, 1848 - June 29, 1848
July 29, 1848 - December 4, 1848
December 26, 1848 - January 1, 1849
March 2, 1849 - March 4, 1849
March 5, 1849 - March 5, 1849
March 16, 1849 - December 2, 1849
December 20, 1852 - March 3, 1853
March 4, 1853 - December 4, 1854

Lewis Cass (D - MI)
December 4, 1854 - December 4, 1854

Jesse D. Bright (D - IN)
December 5, 1854 - December 2, 1855
December 3, 1855 - June 9, 1856
June 11, 1856 - January 6, 1857
June 12, 1860 - June 13, 1860

Charles E. Stuart (D - MI)
June 9, 1856 - June 10, 1856

James M. Mason (D - VA)
January 6, 1857 - March 3, 1857
March 4, 1857 - March 4, 1857

Thomas J. Rusk (D - TX)
March 14, 1857 - July 29, 1857

Benjamin Fitzpatrick (D - AL)
December 7, 1857 - December 20, 1857
March 29, 1858 - May 2, 1858
June 14, 1858 - December 5, 1858
January 19, 1859 - January 19, 1859
January 25, 1859 - February 9, 1859
March 9, 1859 - December 4, 1859
December 19, 1859 - January 15, 1860
February 20, 1860 - February 26, 1860
June 26, 1860 - December 2, 1860

Solomon Foot (Whig, Opposition, Republican - VT)
February 16, 1861 - February 17, 1861
March 23, 1861 - July 3, 1861
July 18, 1861 - December 1, 1861
January 15, 1862 - January 15, 1862
March 31, 1862 - May 21, 1862
June 19, 1862 - December 12, 1862
February 18, 1863 - March 3, 1863
March 4, 1863 - December 6, 1863
December 18, 1863 - December 20, 1863
February 23, 1864 - February 23, 1864
March 11, 1864 - March 13, 1864
April 11, 1864 - April 13, 1864

Daniel Clark (R - NH)
April 26, 1864 - January 4, 1865
February 9, 1865 - February 19, 1865

Lafayette S. Foster (Opposition - CT)
May 7, 1865 - March 2, 1867

Benjamin F. Wade (Whig, Opposition, Republican - OH)
March 2, 1867 - March 3, 1867
March 4, 1867 - March 3, 1869

Henry B. Anthony (R - RI)
March 23, 1869 - March 28, 1869
April 9, 1869 - December 5, 1869
May 28, 1870 - June 2, 1870
July 1, 1870 - July 5, 1870
July 14, 1870 - December 4, 1870
March 10, 1871 - March 12, 1871
April 17, 1871 - May 9, 1871
May 23, 1871 - December 3, 1871
December 21, 1871 - January 7, 1872
February 23, 1872 - February 25, 1872
June 8, 1872 - December 1, 1872
December 4, 1872 - December 8, 1872
December 13, 1872 - December 15, 1872
December 20, 1872 - January 5, 1873
January 24, 1873 - January 24, 1873
January 25, 1875 - January 31, 1875
February 15, 1875 - February 17, 1875

Matthew H. Carpenter (R - WI)
March 12, 1873 - March 13, 1873
March 26, 1873 - November 30, 1873
December 11, 1873 - December 6, 1874
December 23, 1874 - January 4, 1875

Thomas W. Ferry (R - MI)
March 9, 1875 - March 10, 1875
March 19, 1875 - December 20, 1875
December 20, 1875 - March 4, 1877
March 5, 1877 - March 5, 1877
February 26, 1878 - March 3, 1878
April 17, 1878 - December 1, 1878
March 3, 1879 - March 17, 1879

Allen G. Thurman (D - OH)
April 15, 1879 - November 30, 1879
April 7, 1880 - April 14, 1880
May 6, 1880 - December 5, 1880

Thomas F. Bayard (DE)
October 10, 1881 - October 13, 1881

David Davis (Independent - IL)
October 13, 1881 - March 3, 1883

George F. Edmunds (R - VT)
March 3, 1883 - December 2, 1883
December 3, 1883 - January 14, 1884
January 14, 1884 - March 3, 1885

John Sherman (R - OH)
December 7, 1885 - February 26, 1887

John J. Ingalls (R - KS)
February 26, 1887 - December 4, 1887
December 5, 1887 - March 3, 1889
March 7, 1889 - March 17, 1889
April 2, 1889 - December 1, 1889
December 5, 1889 - December 10, 1889
February 28, 1890 - March 18, 1890
April 3, 1890 - March 2, 1891

Charles F. Manderson (R - NE)
March 2, 1891 - December 6, 1891
Note: In March, 1890, the Senate adopted a resolution stating that presidents pro tempore would hold office continuously until the election of another president pro tempore, rather than being elected for the period in which the vice president was absent. With the exception of the unusual case of the 62nd Congress, this new system has continued to the present.
December 7, 1891 - March 3, 1893
March 4, 1893 - March 22, 1893

Isham G. Harris (D - TN)
March 22, 1893 - January 7, 1895
January 10, 1895 - March 3, 1895

Matt W. Ransom (D - NC)
January 7, 1895 - January 10, 1895

William P. Frye (R - ME)
February 7, 1896 - March 3, 1897
March 4, 1897 - December 3, 1899
December 4, 1899 - March 3, 1901
March 7, 1901 - March 4, 1903
March 5, 1903 - March 3, 1905
March 4, 1905 - March 3, 1907
December 5, 1907 - March 3, 1909
March 4, 1909 - April 3, 1911
April 4, 1911 - April 27, 1911

Augustus O. Bacon (D - GA)
August 14, 1911 - August 14, 1911
January 15, 1912 - January 17, 1912
March 11, 1912 - March 12, 1912
April 8, 1912 - April 8, 1912
May 10, 1912 - May 10, 1912
May 30, 1912 - June 3, 1912
June 13, 1912 - July 5, 1912
August 1, 1912 - August 10, 1912
August 27, 1912 - December 15, 1912
January 5, 1913 - January 18, 1913
February 2, 1913 - February 15, 1913

Charles Curtis (R - KS)
December 4, 1911 - December 12, 1911

Jacob H. Gallinger (R - NH)
February 12, 1912 - February 14, 1912
April 26, 1912 - April 27, 1912
May 7, 1912 - May 7, 1912
July 6, 1912 - July 31, 1912
August 12, 1912 - August 26, 1912
December 16, 1912 - January 4, 1913
January 19, 1913 - February 1, 1913
February 16, 1913 - March 3, 1913
Note: William Frye resigned as president pro tempore due to ill health and died on August 8, 1911. Electing his successor proved difficult for the Senate, since Senate Republicans, then in the majority, split between the progressive and the conservative factions, each promoting its own candidate. Likewise, the Democrats proposed their own candidate. As a result of this three-way split, no individual received a majority vote. During May and June of 1911, ballot after ballot failed to elect a president pro tempore. Finally, desperate to return to regular business, senators agreed to a compromised solution: Democrat Augustus Bacon would serve for a single day, August 14, 1911, during the vice president's absence. Thereafter, Bacon and four Republicans -- Charles Curtis, Jacob Gallinger, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Frank Brandegee -- would alternate as president pro tempore for the remainder of the 62nd Congress.

Frank B. Brandegee (R - CT)
March 25, 1912 - March 26, 1912

Henry Cabot Lodge (R - MA)
May 25, 1912 - May 25, 1912

James P. Clarke (D - AR)
March 13, 1913 - March 3, 1915
December 6, 1915 - October 1, 1916

Willard Saulsbury (D - DE)
December 14, 1916 - March 4, 1917
March 5, 1917 - March 3, 1919

Albert B. Cummins (R - IA)
May 19, 1919 - March 3, 1921
March 7, 1921 - December 2, 1923
December 3, 1923 - March 3, 1925
March 4, 1925 - March 6, 1925

George H. Moses (R - NH)
March 6, 1925 - March 4, 1927
December 15, 1927 - March 3, 1929
March 4, 1929 - December 6, 1931
December 7, 1931 - March 3, 1933

Key Pittman (D - NV)
March 9, 1933 - January 2, 1935
January 7, 1935 - January 4, 1937
January 5, 1937 - January 2, 1939
January 3, 1939 - November 10, 1940

William H. King (D - UT)
November 19, 1940 - January 3, 1941

Pat Harrison (D - MS)
January 6, 1941 - June 22, 1941

Carter Glass (D - VA)
July 10, 1941 - January 5, 1943
January 14, 1943 - January 2, 1945

Kenneth McKellar (D - TN)
January 6, 1945 - January 2, 1947
January 3, 1949 - January 2, 1951
January 3, 1951 - January 2, 1953

Arthur H. Vandenberg (R - MI)
January 4, 1947 - January 2, 1949

Styles Bridges (R - NH)
January 3, 1953 - January 4, 1955

Walter F. George (D - GA)
January 5, 1955 - January 2, 1957

Carl T. Hayden (D - AZ)
January 3, 1957 - January 6, 1959
January 7, 1959 - January 2, 1961
January 3, 1961 - January 8, 1963
January 9, 1963 - January 3, 1965
January 4, 1965 - January 9, 1967
January 10, 1967 - January 2, 1969

Richard B. Russell (D - GA)
January 3, 1969 - January 20, 1971
January 21, 1971 - January 21, 1971

Allen J. Ellender (D - LA)
January 22, 1971 - July 27, 1972

James O. Eastland (D - MS)
July 28, 1972 - January 2, 1973
January 3, 1973 - January 13, 1975
January 14, 1975 - January 3, 1977
January 4, 1977 - December 27, 1978

Warren G. Magnuson (D - WA)
January 15, 1979 - December 4, 1980
December 6, 1980 - January 4, 1981

Milton R. Young (R - ND)
December 5, 1980 - December 5, 1980

Strom Thurmond (Democrat, Republican - SC)
January 5, 1981 - January 2, 1983
January 3, 1983 - January 2, 1985
January 3, 1985 - January 5, 1987
January 4, 1995 - January 6, 1997
January 7, 1997 - January 6, 1999
January 7, 1999-January 3, 2001
January 20, 2001-June 6, 2001

John C. Stennis (D - MS)
January 6, 1987 - January 2, 1989

Robert C. Byrd (D - WV)
January 3, 1989 - January 2, 1991
January 3, 1991 - January 4, 1993
January 5, 1993 - January 3, 1995
January 3, 2001 - January 20, 2001
June 6, 2001 - January 3, 2003
Note: From January 3 to January 20, 2001 the Democrats held the majority, due to the deciding vote of outgoing Democratic Vice President Al Gore. Senator Robert C. Byrd became president pro tempore at that time. Starting January 20, 2001, the incoming Republican Vice President Richard Cheney held the deciding vote, giving the majority to the Republicans. Senator Strom Thurmond resumed his role as president pro tempore. On May 24, 2001, Senator James Jeffords of Vermont announced his switch from Republican to Independent status, effective June 6, 2001. Jeffords announced that he would caucus with the Democrats, changing control of the evenly divided Senate from the Republicans to the Democrats. On June 6, 2001, Robert C. Byrd once again became president pro tempore. On that day, the Senate adopted S. Res. 103, designating Senator Thurmond as President Pro Tempore Emeritus.

Theodore (Ted) Stevens (R - AK)
January 3, 2003 - January 3, 2005
January 4, 2005 - Present