President of the Senate U.S. federal government was established in 1789. The vice president with the most tie breaking votes is John Adams (served 1789–1797) with 29. The current Vice President Mike Pence, in office since January 2017, has cast seven tie-breaking votes. In state governments of the United States, the presiding officer of the state senate (the upper house) is a matter decided by the state's constitution. Some states designate the lieutenant governor as president of the senate, while in other states, the Senate elects its own president. The Tennessee Senate elects a senator Speaker of the Senate, who is given the title
President of the European Council the European Union. The President does have, however, his own private office ("cabinet") of close advisers. Van Rompuy chose as his first chief of staff ("chef de cabinet") Baron Frans van Daele, formerly Belgian ambassador to, variously, the USA, the UN, the EU and NATO and chief of staff of several Belgian foreign ministers. Upon his retirement in the autumn of 2012, Didier Seeuws, former Deputy Perm Rep of Belgium to the EU and former Spokesman for Belgian PM Verhofstadt, replaced him. Also in his team were the former UK Labour MEP Richard Corbett and Van Rompuy's long standing press