Senate Officers Clause

Original meaning — a self-governing chamber

The Convention's Committee of Detail draft of 4 September 1787 folded the pro-tempore provision into the same section as the Vice President's ex officio role: "The Vice President shall be ex officio, President of the Senate, except when they sit to try the impeachment of the President, in which case the Chief Justice shall preside, and excepting also when he shall exercise the powers and duties of President, in which case, and in case of his absence, the Senate shall chuse a President pro tempore". The Committee of Style carried the language through on 7 September largely unchanged; no debate on the officer-selection clause itself is recorded in Madison's or the Journal's notes.

contradiction

Committee of Style attribution vs. President of the Senate This page attributes 7 September 1787 action to "the Committee of Style" carrying the ex officio language through with no recorded debate. President of the Senate instead documents floor debate (Gerry, Mason, Randolph, Williamson opposing; Sherman and Morris defending) and an 8–2–1 vote on 7 September making the Vice President ex officio President of the Senate — and the Committee of Style was not appointed until 8 September. Needs reconciliation on which body acted, and when.

Story treats the Senate's power to choose its own officers as needing no defense: "The propriety of entrusting the senate with the choice of its other officers, and also of a president pro tempore in the absence of the vice president, or when he exercises the office of president, seems never to have been questioned; and indeed is so obvious, that it is wholly unnecessary to vindicate it. Confidence between the senate and its officers, and the power to make a suitable choice, and to secure a suitable responsibility for the faithful discharge of the duties of office, are so indispensable for the public good, that the provision will command universal assent, as soon as it is mentioned" (§739).

Story also records the early institutional practice this clause enabled: "It has grown into a general practice for the vice president to vacate the senatorial chair a short time before the termination of each session, in order to enable the senate to choose a president pro tempore, who might already be in office, if the vice president in the recess should be called to the chair of state" (§739) — a standing contingency plan for succession built from the Senate's own self-governance power, independent of any vacancy actually occurring.

President pro tempore — voting power

Unlike the Vice President under cl. 4, a president pro tempore retains full voting rights as a sitting Senator; the office does not convert the officeholder into a tie-breaker-only presiding officer. See President of the Senate for succession-statute history (1792, 1886, 1947 Acts) and the impeachment-trial exception.