Presidential Succession Act

Article II lets Congress provide by law for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability of both the President and Vice President. The first Presidential Succession Act, in 1792, placed the President pro tempore of the Senate and then the Speaker of the House next in line. In 1886, after the death of Vice President Thomas Hendricks left no officer in line, Congress replaced them with Cabinet secretaries in the order their departments were created, beginning with the Secretary of State.

After Franklin Roosevelt's death in 1945, President Harry Truman argued that an elected official should come before appointed ones, and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, signed on July 18, 1947, restored the Speaker and President pro tempore ahead of the Cabinet. The line now runs from the Vice President to the Speaker, the President pro tempore, and then the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Defense, the Attorney General, and the remaining department heads, with Homeland Security added in 2006. An officer must be eligible to be President and, for Cabinet members, confirmed by the Senate.

No one beyond the Vice President has ever acted as President under the law. Scholars and a bipartisan Continuity of Government Commission have identified problems with it, including doubts about whether members of Congress count as officers under Article II, the risk that a Speaker of a different party could displace a Cabinet officer acting as President, and the concentration of everyone in the line in Washington. The practice of keeping a designated survivor away from events such as the State of the Union addresses part of that risk.