Something rare may transpire in the Senate in the coming week or so, if Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware casts a vote in the 111th Congress.

Biden was elected vice president on Nov. 4, but he also won election that day to his seventh full term in the Senate — and he will take his seat in the chamber again next week when the 111th Congress convenes Jan. 6.

Biden has not yet said when he will resign from the Senate, although he will do so by Jan. 20, when Barack Obama will take the oath as president and Biden will be sworn in as vice president.

In an ordinary year, a new Congress would take a break between its opening day or two and late January. But with the economy in a deep recession, the financial system in crisis and two wars in progress, there will be no such breathing space this time around.

Obama wants Congress to have a massive economic recovery package ready for his signature as soon as possible after he takes the oath Jan. 20. That means both chambers may be taking roll call votes before Inauguration Day.

“If a critical vote comes up and Sen. Biden is needed, he will vote,” Biden spokeswoman Annie Tomasini said Tuesday.

If Biden does cast a Senate vote before assuming the vice presidency, it would be the first time in 60 years that a vice president-elect voted in a new Congress prior to being sworn in as vice president. Kentucky Sen. Alben W. Barkley cast several Senate votes in January 1949 — including to confirm Dean Acheson as secretary of State — before resigning his seat to become Harry S. Truman’s vice president.

Other vice presidents plucked from the Senate since then have not voted in the new Congress, according to Associate Senate historian Donald A. Ritchie.

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