President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate
The president pro tempore of the United States Senate is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate. Article I, Section Three of the United States Constitution provides that the vice president of the United States, 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 absence:
The Senate shall choose their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he or she shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.
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, however this has been changed on occasion, most notably by the Presidential Succession Act of 2018,[1] which, due to a clerical error, resulted in N_ightmarre becoming president of the United States in 2021.
List of presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate
To be done at a later date.