Office of the Vice President

The constitutional and statutory responsibilities of the vice presidency are few and unimportant—legal-ly, it is a weak office. The additional roles and resources that the vice president enjoys are delegated—and can be revoked—at the discretion of the president. "The president can bestow assignments and authority and can remove that authority and power at will," wrote Hubert H. Humphrey, who served as vice president with President Lyndon B. Johnson. "I used to call this Humphrey's Law—'He who giveth can taketh away and often does.'" ¹ Accordingly, the activities and influence of individual vice presidents vary considerably from administration to administration.