When she supported the nomination of Indian-origin Kalpana Kotagal to be a member of a federal agency as a vice president, Kamala Harris broke a 191-year-old record for casting tie-breaking votes. Harris equaled the record established by Senator John C. Calhoun, a Democratic-Republican who served as John Quincy Adams' and Andrew Jackson's vice president from 1825 to 1832. Harris made history in 2020 as the first woman or person of color to hold the office. Harris, 58, voted in favor of cloture on Kotagal's nomination as a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Wednesday. Kotagal is an expert in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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Federal laws prohibiting discrimination against job applicants or employees based on their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 or older), handicap, or genetic information are enforced by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Harris broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate during a vote on Kotagal's nomination, giving her a total of 31 tie-breaking votes as vice president since taking office.
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That is consistent with Calhoun's record, a Democratic-Republican who openly supported slavery and states' rights.The vice president's constitutional duties include presiding over the Senate and mediating deadlocks in the upper house. Republicans now possess 49 seats in the 118th Congress, while Democrats hold 51. On Wednesday night's floor speech, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer praised Harris' success. He was cited as stating by the Hill newspaper, "I want to note that this is a history-making moment for the United States Senate."
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Vice President Harris has cast the deciding vote on some of the most important measures in modern history when it has mattered the most, including the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the nomination of a large number of federal judges who currently sit as judges and create a balance on the federal bench. He said, "She has performed her duties with the utmost excellence." On June 21, she cast a vote to break a tie in favor of Natasha Merle's nomination as a judge for the Eastern District of New York (50-50) and in favor of Araceli Martinez-Olguin's confirmation as a judge for the North District of California (48-48).
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The Senate remained evenly divided throughout the first two years of Harris' vice presidential term, giving rise to the moniker "101st Senator" Within the first three weeks of her employment in February 2021, Harris cast her first tiebreakers. A record-breaking fifteen tiebreaker votes in her first year as vice president surpassed Mike Pence's total of thirteen in his four years in office, according to the Politico newspaper. Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein and the daughter of Indian immigrants, serves as co-chair of the company's hiring and diversity committee in addition to being a member of the Civil Rights and Employment practice group.
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She is a co-author of the important legal document known as the "Inclusion Rider." According to the White House, Kotagal is also an expert in diversity, equity, and inclusion. She represents marginalized people in employment and civil rights cases involving Title VII, the Equal Pay Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian mother who was born in Chennai and later came to the US to pursue higher education, and her Jamaican husband were the parents of Harris. Gopalan, a researcher on breast cancer, passed away from cancer in 2009. Donald Harris, her father, is an economics professor who is Jamaican-American.