From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Office of the Vice President includes
personnel who directly support or advise the Vice President of the
United States. The Office is currently headed by the Chief
of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, currently
Ron Klain. The Office
also provides staffing and support to the Second Lady of the United States.
Status of the
Office of the Vice President
The United States Constitution
provides that Vice President is the President of the Senate and is
first in the presidential
line of succession.
Because of this dual role, controversy has arisen over whether
the Office of the Vice President is part of the Executive
branch or the Legislative
branch of government[1]. During
the Presidency of Bill Clinton,
the Plum
Book described the Office of the Vice President as being a
component of the Executive Office of the President[2][3].
However, during the Presidency of George W.
Bush, the Plum Book described the Office of the Vice President
as "a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch
nor a part of the legislative branch"[4][5].
History
For much of its existence, the office of Vice President was seen
as little more than a minor position. John Adams, the first Vice President,
described it as "the most insignificant office that ever the
invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Thomas R.
Marshall, the 28th Vice President, lamented: "Once there were
two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected Vice
President of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of
them again."[6]
When the Whig Party was looking for a
Vice President on Zachary Taylor's ticket, they approached
Daniel
Webster, who said of the offer, "I do not intend to be buried
until I am dead." This was the second time Webster declined the
office; both times, the President making the offer died in office.
The natural stepping-stone to the Presidency was long considered to
be the office of Secretary of
State.
Harry Truman had been Vice President only
three months when he became president; he was never informed of
Franklin Roosevelt's war and postwar policies while Vice
President.
For many years, the Vice President was given few
responsibilities. After John Adams attended a meeting of the
president's Cabinet in 1791, no Vice
President did so again until Thomas Marshall stood in for President
Woodrow Wilson
while he traveled to Europe in 1918 and 1919. Marshall's successor,
Calvin
Coolidge, was invited to meetings by President Warren G.
Harding. The next Vice President, Charles G. Dawes, did not seek to
attend Cabinet meetings under President Coolidge, declaring that
"the precedent might prove injurious to the country."[7] Vice
President Charles
Curtis was also precluded from attending by President Herbert
Hoover.
Garret
Hobart, the first Vice President under William
McKinley, was one of the very few Vice Presidents at this time
who played an important role in the administration. A close
confidant and adviser of the President, Hobart was called
Assistant President.[8]
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt raised the stature of the office
by renewing the practice of inviting the Vice President to cabinet
meetings, which has been maintained by every president since.
Roosevelt's first Vice President, John Nance Garner, broke with him at
the start of the second term on the Court-packing
issue and became Roosevelt's leading political enemy. Garner's
successor, Henry Wallace, was given major
responsibilities during the war, but he moved further to the left
than the Democratic Party and the rest of the Roosevelt
administration and was relieved of actual power. Roosevelt kept his
last Vice President, Harry Truman, uninformed on all war and
postwar issues, such as the atomic bomb, leading Truman to wryly
remark that the job of the Vice President is to "go to weddings and
funerals." Following Roosevelt's death and Truman's ascension to
the presidency, the need to keep Vice Presidents informed on
national security issues became clear, and Congress made the Vice
President one of four statutory members of the National Security
Council in 1949.
Richard Nixon
reinvented the office of Vice President. He had the attention of
the media and the Republican party, when Dwight Eisenhower ordered him to preside at
Cabinet meetings in his absence. Nixon was also the first Vice
President to temporarily assume control of the executive branch,
which he did after Eisenhower suffered a heart
attack on September 24, 1955, ileitis in June 1956, and a stroke in November 1957. President Jimmy Carter was the
first president to formally give his Vice President, Walter Mondale,
an office in the West
Wing of the White House.
Current
staff
- Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs:
Anthony Blinken
- Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President: Brian
McKeon[12]
- Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice
President: Jared Bernstein[13]
- Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President: Terry
McSweeny[11]
- Assistant to the Vice President and Director of Communications:
Jay Carney[14]
- Assistant to the Vice President for Intergovernmental Affairs
and Public Liaison: Evan Ryan[11]
- Director of Legislative Affairs: Sudafi Henry[10]
- Director of Administration for the Office of the Vice
President: Moises V. Vela, Jr. [10]
- Director of Scheduling: Elisabeth Hire[15]
- Director of Advance: Pete Selfridge[15]
- Trip Director: Sam Myers Sr.[15]
References
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