BRIEF ON NEW USA PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT

•PRESIDENT OF USA

•FACTS ABOUT

•POWER OF PRESIDENT OF USA

•ABOUT KAMLAHARRIS

•ABOUT VICE PRESIDENT

PRESIDENT OF USA

•The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

•The president also plays a leading role in federal legislation and domestic policymaking. As part of the system of checks and balances, Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution gives the president the power to sign or veto federal legislation. Since modern presidents are also typically viewed as the leaders of their political parties, major policymaking is significantly shaped by the outcome of presidential elections, with presidents taking an active role in promoting their policy priorities to members of Congress who are often electorally dependent on the president.In recent decades, presidents have also made increasing use of executive orders, agency regulations, and judicial appointments to shape domestic policy.

FACTS ON JOE BIDEN

•He played on his high school football team. Mr Biden played both wide receiver and halfback on the team. In 1960 they went undefeated.

•He has two German shepherds, named Champ and Major. •A huge car enthusiast, he still has the '67 Corvette Stingray he got from his father

•Joe Biden wrote and championed the Violence Against Women Act.

•In December 1972, Mr Biden's wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Amy were killed in a road accident. His sons Beau and Hunter also suffered injuries in the crash. Mr Biden had been elected to the Senate for the first time, but rather than move to Washington DC, he decided to commute by train every day from Wilmington so he could spend more time with his sons.

•After losing his wife and daughter in the car accident, Joe Biden was sworn into the Senate at his sons' hospital bedsides.

•He grew up with a stutter and would recite Yeats and Emerson to work on his public speaking.

•At 29, he was one of the youngest people ever elected to the . He met the constitutional age requirement of 30 by the time he was sworn in.

•He is the second Catholic president in US history. John F Kennedy was the first

POWER OF PRESIDENT OF USA

•The powers of the president of the United States include those explicitly granted by Article II of the United States Constitution as well as those granted by Acts of Congress, implied powers, and also a great deal of soft power that is attached to the presidency.

•The Constitution explicitly assigns the president the power to sign or veto legislation, command the armed forces, ask for the written opinion of their Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant reprieves and pardons, and receive ambassadors. The president shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed and the president has the power to appoint and remove executive officers. The president may make treaties, which need to be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate, and is accorded those foreign-affairs functions not otherwise granted to Congress or shared with the Senate. Thus, the president can control the formation and communication of foreign policy and can direct the nation's diplomatic corps. The president may also appoint Article III judges and some officers with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. In the condition of a Senate recess, the president may make a temporary appointment.

ABOUT KAMLA HARRIS

•Kamala Harris is the 49th and current vice president of the United States. She is the first Black, first South Asian, and first female occupant of the office. She assumed office on January 20, 2021.

•Kamala's name comes from an Indian word meaning “lotus.” Kamala is also the name of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi or the great wisdom goddess who represents wealth and good fortune.

•Kamala’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan, came to United States from India in 1958 to attend the University of California at Berkeley and become a breast cancer researcher. She was a gifted singer, specializing in the classical Carnatic music of southern India, a discipline she learned from her mother.

•Harris is now the first American of Indian and Asian descent to be vice-president. She is also the first African American of a major party and only the third woman yet to run for that office, after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro and Republican Sarah Palin.

•Harris became the first Indian American woman to run for US president ever - from either party - in 2019. She is also the first Indian-American Democrat to try for the job.

•Harris has also served as district attorney in San Francisco.

ABOUT VICE PRESIDENT

•The vice president of the United States is the second-highest officer in the executive branchof the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession.

•The vice president is also an officer in the legislative branch, as the president of the Senate. In this capacity, the vice president is empowered to preside over Senate deliberations, but may not vote except to cast a tie-breaking vote.

•The vice president is indirectly elected together with the president to a four-year term of office by the people of the United States through the Electoral College.

•The modern vice presidency is a position of significant power and is widely seen as an integral part of a president's administration. While the exact nature of the role varies in each administration, most modern vice presidents serve as a key presidential advisor, governing partner, and representative of the president. The vice president is also a statutory member of the National Security Counciland thus plays a significant role in national security matters. As the vice president's role within the executive branch has expanded, the legislative branch role has contracted; for example, vice presidents now preside over the Senate only infrequently.

•The role of the vice presidency has changed dramatically since the office was created during the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Originally something of an afterthought, the vice presidency was considered an insignificant office for much of the nation's history, especially after the Twelfth Amendment meant that vice presidents were no longer the runners-up in the presidential election. The vice president's role began steadily growing in importance during the 1930s, with the Office of the Vice President being created in the executive branch in 1939, and has since grown much further. Due to its increase in power and prestige, the vice presidency is now often considered to be a stepping stone to the presidency.

•The Constitution does not expressly assign the vice presidency to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars about which branch of government the office belongs to:

1)the executive branch

2)the legislative branch

3)both

4)neither.

•The modern view of the vice president as an officer of the executive branch – one isolated almost totally from the legislative branch – is due in large part to the assignment of executive authority to the vice president by either the president or Congress.