In response to Josh’s post about the release of the newest edition of the Plum Book, several readers have commented on the entry devoted to the Office of the Vice President:
The Vice Presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch, but is attached by the Constitution to the latter. The Vice Presidency performs functions in both the legislative branch (see article I, section 3 of the Constitution) and in the executive branch (see article II, and amendments XII and XXV, of the Constitution, and section 106 of title 3 of the United States Code).
We first noted this odd entry early last year in the previous edition of the Plum Book, and reported how it was a departure from previous vice presidential entries. At the time, Cheney’s office would not even confirm the number of staff it employed.
You might recall that the Cheney/Addington view of a fourth branch became an issue about a year ago when it was revealed that the OVP had used that argument to try to avoid oversight by the National Archives of how it handled classified materials. In a classic Cheney knife-fighting move, he subsequently tried to eliminate funding for the National Archives office that raised the issue.
This heretofore unknown constitutional wrinkle will not be an issue when Joe Biden is sworn in. “The vice president is part of the executive branch, period. End of story,” a Biden spokesman said during the campaign.
