Office of the Vice President of the United States

• 1. Introduction

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  The Office of the Vice President of the United States is one of the most peculiar institutions in American government. For roughly the first century and a half of the republic, the person elected to be one heartbeat from the presidency had almost no staff at all. A secretary. Perhaps a personal assistant or two. That was it. How did such a lean operation become the layered, cross-branch apparatus it is today? And why does the office draw its salary from two separate branches of government at once? The answers reach back to the founders themselves, and to a Connecticut delegate who had very specific views about what would happen to the Senate if the vice president were ever removed from it.

• 2. A Constitutional Puzzle

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  Roger Sherman, a Founding Father and Connecticut congressional cabinet member, made the case plainly: if the vice president did not serve as president of the Senate, someone else would have to occupy that neutral presiding role, and the chamber's balance would be thrown off. That argument helped lock the vice president into a strange constitutional position. Three formal duties were assigned to the office: stepping in if the president died, became disabled, or resigned; counting electoral votes before a joint session of Congress and declaring the winners; and presiding over the Senate with the power to break ties. These duties straddled two branches of government. The salary consequences followed directly. Because the vice president's formal role was so bound up with the Senate, staff of the Office of the Vice President continued to have their pay funded through both legislative and executive branch appropriations, a funding split that persists to this day.

• 3. From Secretary to Staff

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  The 1939 Reorganization Act marked the first formal structural step. That law created an entity explicitly called the "Office of the Vice President" and placed it under the Executive Office of the President. John Nance Garner held the vice presidency at that moment, making him the first to sit atop a formally named office. The change was organizational on paper, but real expansion in duties came during World War II. Vice President Henry Wallace was given actual executive responsibilities during the war years. His successor Alben Barkley went further: in 1949 he became a member of the National Security Council, drawing the vice president deeper into the machinery of executive governance than any predecessor had been.

• 4. The Eisenhower Building

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  Since the 1950s the Office of the Vice President has been physically anchored in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the ornate granite structure that sits just west of the White House. Much of the office occupies space that was originally built for the secretary of the Navy when the building was first constructed. That naval heritage left its mark: the room redesign of the EEOB space incorporated emblems of the Navy Department, a deliberate nod to its original purpose. A Boston interior designer named William McPherson spearheaded that redesign. The vice president also gained an office in the West Wing itself in 1977, adding a closer physical foothold to the presidential workspace. Beyond those two locations, the office maintains a presence at the United States Capitol and at the vice president's official residence.

• 5. Who Runs the Office Today

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  Jacob Reses currently serves as Chief of Staff to the Vice President, heading an office that now spans domestic policy, national security, communications, legal counsel, and operations. Bryan Gray holds the Deputy Chief of Staff role. Ben Moss directs domestic policy, while Andy Baker serves as National Security Adviser. On the communications side, William Martin leads as Communications Director, with Luke Schroder as his deputy. Taylor Van Kirk holds the Press Secretary position, and Buckley Carlson serves as Deputy Press Secretary. Sean Cooksey is Counsel to the Vice President. A separate Office of the Second Lady runs alongside, with Shannon Fisher as its Chief of Staff, providing staffing and support specifically for the second lady of the United States.