Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the United States Constitution provides that the vice president of the United States is the ex officio president of the Senate, and that the vice president may cast a vote in the Senate only in order to break a tie. According to information provided by the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, as of February 28, 2023, the collective number of tie-breaking votes cast by vice presidents was 296. Constitutional basis Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the Constitution of the United States directly states: History The first vice president of the United States, John Adams, cast 29 tie-breaking votes. He cast his first tie-breaking vote on July 18, 1789. His votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, and prevented war with Great Britain. On at least one occasion he persuaded senators to vote against legislation that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams' political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint in the hope of realizing the goal shared by many of his successors: election in his own right as President of the United States. John C. Calhoun was the only vice president to ever cast tie-breaking votes against his own president, Andrew Jackson. President Jackson nominated Martin Van Buren as United States Minister to the United Kingdom, as Van Buren was acting minister on a recess appointment. Calhoun cast a tie-breaking vote to delay the nomination on January 13, 1832, and later cast a vote to defeat the nomination on January 25. Calhoun's supporters in the Senate provided him with the opportunity to spite Jackson, where just enough of Calhoun's faction abstained to create a tie that he was then able to break. In the early 21st century, the increased threat of a filibuster led to a rise in the use of cloture to end debate in the Senate, especially on high-profile issues where the Senate is sharply divided. The increased use of cloture made the vice president's tie-breaking vote less likely to be used, as the invocation