The president pro tempore of the United States Senate (also president pro tem) is the second-highest-ranking official of the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
.
Article I, Section Three of the
United States Constitution provides that the
vice president of the United States
The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...
, despite not being a senator, is the
president of the Senate. It also establishes that the Senate must choose a
president pro tempore to act in his or her absence:
In practice, neither the vice president nor the president pro tempore usually presides; instead, the duty of presiding officer is rotated among junior senators of the majority party to give them experience in
parliamentary procedure
Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense ...
.
The president pro tempore is third in the
line of succession to the presidency, after the vice president and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives and ahead of the
Secretary of State.
Since 1890, the most
senior senator
United States senators are conventionally ranked by the length of their tenure in the Senate. The senator in each U.S. state with the longer time in office is known as the ''senior senator''; the other is the ''junior senator''. This convention ...
in the majority party has generally been chosen to be president pro tempore,
and holds the office continuously until the election of another president pro tempore.
[ During most of the 62nd Congress, following William Frye's resignation on April 27, 1911, five senators—Augustus Bacon, Charles Curtis, Jacob Gallinger, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Frank Brandegee—alternated as president pro tempore.
Since the office was created in 1789, 92 individuals, from 39 of the 50 states, have served as president pro tempore of the Senate. The current president pro tempore is ]Patty Murray
Patricia Lynn Murray (; born October 11, 1950) is an American politician and educator who is the senior United States senator from Washington since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, Murray was in the Washington State Senate from 1988 to ...
of Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, who assumed office on January 3, 2023, at the start of the 118th Congress
The 118th United States Congress is the next meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It is scheduled to meet in Washington ...
. In 2001, the honorary title of president pro tempore emeritus was created, and it has been given to a senator of the minority party who has previously served as president pro tempore. This title is currently held by Chuck Grassley
Charles Ernest Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate, and the senior United States senator from Iowa, having held the seat since 1981. In 2022, h ...
of Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...
.
Every president pro tempore has been a member of a political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
or faction
Faction or factionalism may refer to:
Politics
* Political faction, a group of people with a common political purpose
* Free and Independent Faction, a Romanian political party
* Faction (''Planescape''), a political faction in the game ''Planes ...
; the number affiliated with each is:
:
Presidents pro tempore
Notes
President pro tempore emeritus
In 2001, the honorary title of president pro tempore emeritus was created. It has subsequently been bestowed upon a senator of the minority party who has previously served as president pro tempore.[
]
See also
* Dean of the United States Senate
The dean of the United States Senate is an informal term for the senator with the longest continuous service, regardless of party affiliation. This is not an official position within the Senate, although customarily (since 1945) the longest-servi ...
* History of the United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. Lik ...
* Seniority in the United States Senate
* List of current presidents of legislatures
This is a list of current presiding officers of the legislative assemblies of sovereign and unrecognized states, autonomous regions, dependencies and other territories, sui generis entities, and international organisations.
States recognised by ...
, presiding officers of legislative assemblies worldwide
References
{{USCongress, membersandleaders
Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
United States Senate, Presidents pro tempore
President pro tempore