In June 1945, two months after becoming president upon
Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, Harry S. Truman sent a message to Congress urging the revision of the Presidential Succession Act of 1886. He recommended that the speaker of the House and president pro tempore of the Senate be restored to, and given priority in, the presidential line of succession over members of the Cabinet. The arrangement reflected Truman's belief that the president should not have the power to appoint to office "the person who would be my immediate successor in the event of my own death or inability to act", and that the presidency should, whenever possible, "be filled by an elective officer". Cabinet officials are appointed by the president, whereas the speaker and the president pro tempore are elected officials. He also recommended that a provision be made for election of a new president and vice president should vacancies in both of those offices occur more than three months before the
midterm congressional elections. A bill incorporating the president's proposal was introduced in the House on June 25, 1945, by
Hatton W. Sumners and approved—minus the special election provision—four days later by a wide margin. The measure was forwarded to the Senate, which took no action on it during the balance of the
79th Congress. Truman renewed his request in 1947, when the
80th Congress convened following the
1946 midterm elections. Early in 1947, Senator
Kenneth S. Wherry introduced a bill in the Senate which, like the previous 1945 version, put the speaker and the president pro tempore second and third in the succession order respectively, and contained no provision for a special election. After considerable debate the measure was approved on June 27, 1947, by a vote of 50 to 35. Forwarded to the House, the legislation engendered little debate, and was passed on July 10 by a vote of 365 to 11. President Truman signed the bill into law on July 18. The act stipulates, that in order for either the speaker or the president pro tempore to become acting president, he or she must meet the requirements for presidential eligibility, and must, prior to acting as president, resign from office, including from Congress. Like the 1886 act, this statute specifies that only Cabinet members who are constitutionally eligible to the office of president, and not under impeachment by the House at the time the powers and duties of the presidency devolve upon them, may become the acting president. However, unlike the 1886 act, this statute mandates that any Cabinet officer who accedes to the powers and duties of the presidency resign their Cabinet post. The 1886 and 1947 acts diverge in one other way. The 1886 act describes "such officers as shall have been appointed by the advice and consent of the Senate to the offices therein named" as being eligible to serve as acting president, whereas the 1947 act describes "officers appointed, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate" as being eligible. Although a case for their inclusion can be made, it is not clear whether acting secretaries are indeed in the line of succession. The 1947 act established that a person who becomes an acting president under the act will earn the same compensation given to the president. It also included a provision substituting the secretary of defense for the secretary of war in the line of succession and striking out the secretary of the navy. In 1953, a new Cabinet department was created; this led to the creation of a new position behind the secretary of labor in the line of succession: the
secretary of health, education and welfare. In 1965, another new Cabinet department was created; the
secretary of housing and urban development joined the line of succession. The
secretary of transportation was added the following year. In 1970 and 1977, respectively, the
postmaster general was removed as a result of the
Postal Reorganization Act, and the
secretary of energy was inserted at the end of the list. In 1979, when the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was divided by the
Department of Education Organization Act, its secretary was replaced in the order of succession by the
secretary of health and human services, and the new
secretary of education was added in the last position. In 1988 and 2006, respectively, the
secretary of veterans affairs and then the
secretary of homeland security were added, becoming the 16th and 17th statutory successors (including the vice president) to the powers and duties of the presidency. When the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002, the
act creating it did not contain a provision adding the new department's secretary into the line of presidential succession. Secretaries of newly created cabinet-level departments are not automatically included, but must be specifically incorporated.
Potential invocations While it has not become necessary to invoke the 1947 Act, the vice presidency was vacant at the time of its adoption, and has been vacant three more times since: Recourse in this case to the 1947 Act was not necessary, because Section 2 of the
Twenty-fifth Amendment, ratified only six years earlier, established a mechanism for filling an intra-term vice presidential vacancy, and
House Minority Leader Ford was appointed. As a result, rather than Speaker Albert becoming acting president when Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Vice President Ford became president on that date. During the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the
Secret Service carried out its
plan for ensuring the
continuity of government, which in part called for gathering up persons in the presidential line of succession and taking them to a
secure location, to guarantee that at least one officer in the line of succession would survive the attacks. Speaker of the House
Dennis Hastert and several other congressional leaders went; President pro tempore of the Senate Robert Byrd did not, choosing instead to be taken to his
Capitol Hill home. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Transportation
Norman Mineta went into an underground bunker at the White House; a few Cabinet members were out of the country that day.
Designated successor There is a long history, dating back to the
Cold War era, of keeping a
designated successor away from events at which numerous high-ranking federal officers—including the president, vice president, congressional leaders, and Cabinet members—will be gathered. This is done to ensure that there is always someone available to assume the reins of government if all the other officers are killed at the event. For example, Secretary of Agriculture
Sonny Perdue was the Cabinet member so designated when President
Donald Trump delivered his
2018 State of the Union Address. Perdue was taken to a secure location several hours beforehand, and remained there throughout the event. Although any cabinet secretary could be selected, the person appointed has usually come from one of the newer departments low in the line of succession. The person chosen must also meet the constitutional requirements to serve as president.
Akhil Amar, who is a
legal scholar in
constitutional law, has called it "a disastrous statute, an accident waiting to happen". There are two main areas of concern.
Meaning of "officer" There are concerns regarding the constitutionality of having members of Congress in the line of succession. The Constitution's Succession Clause—
Article II, Section 1, Clause 6—specifies that only an "Officer" may be designated as a presidential successor. Constitutional scholars from
James Madison to the present day have argued that the term "Officer" refers to an "
Officer of the United States", a term of art that excludes members of Congress. During a September 2003 joint hearing before the U.S. Senate's
Committee on Rules and Administration and
Committee on the Judiciary,
M. Miller Baker said: In "Is the Presidential Succession Law Constitutional?", Akhil Amar and
Vikram Amar refer to the
Incompatibility Clause (Article I, Section 6, Clause 2)—which bars officials in the federal government's executive branch from simultaneously serving in either the U.S. House or Senate—as evidence that members of the Congress cannot be in the Presidential line of succession. In its 2009 report, the
Continuity of Government Commission argued that as well as going against the language of the Constitution, bumping violates the doctrine of
separation of powers by undermining the independence of the executive from the Congress: On a practical level, it has been argued that this provision could result in there being multiple acting presidents in a short period of time during a national crisis and weaken the public legitimacy of successors. In a January 2011
Roll Call op-ed, Representative
Brad Sherman wrote, ==Table of statutory successors==