what is the role of the president pro tempore of the senate
President pro tempore of the United States Senate The president pro tempore of the United States Senate (/ˌproʊ ˈtɛmpəriː/ or /ˌproʊ ˈtɛmpəreɪ/),[2] also president pro tem, is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate. Article One, Section Three of the United States Constitution provides that the Vice President of the United States is, despite not being a senator, the President of the Senate, and mandates that the Senate must choose a president pro tempore to act in the Vice President's absence. Unlike the vice president, the president pro tempore is an elected member of the Senate, able to speak or vote on any issue. Selected by the Senate at large, the president pro tempore has enjoyed many privileges and some limited powers.[3] During the vice president's absence, the president pro tempore is empowered to preside over Senate sessions. In practice, neither the vice president nor the president pro tempore usually presides; instead, the duty of presiding officer is rotated among junior senators of the majority party to give them experience in parliamentary procedure.[4]
Presiding Officer of the United States Senate The Constitution also provides for appointment of one of the elected senators to serve as President pro tempore. This senator presides when the vice president was absent from the body. The president pro tempore is selected by the body specifically for the role of presiding in the absence of (as the meaning of pro tempore, literally "for the time being") the actual presiding officer. By tradition, the title of President pro tempore has come to be given more-or-less automatically to the most senior senator of the majority party. In actual practice in the modern Senate, the president pro tempore also does not often serve in the role (though it is their constitutional right to do so). Instead, as governed by Rule I, they frequently designate a junior senator to perform the function.