Order of Presidential Succession - 2012 Presidential Election

Last updated on: 11/7/2011 1:24:45 PM PST

Order of Presidential Succession

Who becomes President if Obama dies, resigns, or is removed from office?

"While the Constitution, as amended by the 25th Amendment

(230KB), provides that the Vice President will succeed to the nation’s highest office on the death, resignation, or removal from office of the President, it delegates authority for succession beyond the Vice President to Congress. Over the past two centuries, Congress has exercised its authority in three succession acts, in 1792, 1886, and 1947. It has also added to, revised, and clarified the succession process through Sections 3 and 4 of the 20th Amendment, proposed by Congress in 1932 and ratified by the states in 1933, and the 25th Amendment, proposed in 1965 and ratified in 1967. The Succession Act of 1947

(373KB), as amended, and the two constitutional amendments currently govern succession to the presidency."

Source: Congressional Research Service (CRS), "Presidential Succession: Perspectives, Contemporary Analysis, and 110th Congress Proposed Legislation"

(177KB), assets.opencrs.com, Oct. 3, 2008


	Office	Office Holder (as of Nov. 7, 2012) With link to biography on ProCon.org when available
	President	Barack Obama
1.	Vice President	Joe Biden, Jr.
2.	Speaker of the House of Representatives	John Boehner
3.	President Pro Tempore of the Senate	Daniel Inouye
4.	Secretary of State	Hillary Rodham Clinton
5.	Secretary of the Treasury	Timothy Geithner
6.	Secretary of Defense	Leon Panetta
7.	Attorney General	Eric Holder
8.	Secretary of the Interior	Ken Salazar
9.	Secretary of Agriculture	Thomas Vilsack
10.	Secretary of Commerce	John Bryson
11.	Secretary of Labor	Hilda Solis
12.	Secretary of Health and Human Services	Kathleen Sebelius
13.	Secretary of Housing and Urban Development	Shaun Donovan
14.	Secretary of Transportation	Ray LaHood
15.	Secretary of Energy	Steven Chu
16.	Secretary of Education	Arne Duncan
17.	Secretary of Veterans Affairs	Eric Shinseki
18.	Secretary of Homeland Security *	Janet Napolitano

* "[O]n March 9, 2006, the President [George W. Bush] signed the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 into law (H.R. 3199, Representative James Sensenbrenner, P.L. 109-177, 120 Stat. 192). Title V, Section 503 of this act revised the order of presidential succession to incorporate the Secretary of Homeland Security as 18th in the line, following the Secretary of Veterans Affairs."

Source: Congressional Research Service (CRS), "Presidential Succession: Perspectives, Contemporary Analysis, and 110th Congress Proposed Legislation"

(177KB), assets.opencrs.com, Oct. 3, 2008

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