If Government is Wiped Out, Who Gets to be Pres?

The scene is catastrophic: terrorists have released dangerous biological agents at strategic points around the capital. The White House is caught off-guard, and the President and Vice-President are incapacitated. Key members of the Cabinet and Congress are stricken with a strange illness and lie comatose. The casualties are immense, and as the confusion worsens, word reaches the news networks that the President and Vice-President are dead. In this nightmarish circumstance, what becomes of the American government? Ongoing threats exist, and action is imminently required – if those in the existing line of succession are all deceased, who becomes the President? Presidential Succession, a report released earlier this month by the Continuity of Government Commission, addresses just these sorts of questions.

The report invites the reader to picture several sets of bizarre but conceivable circumstances: four surviving House members forming quorum and electing a Speaker who is elevated to the presidency; Governors appointing Senators to an empty Senate, who in turn pick from amongst themselves a Senate pro tempore; one scenario even has the Deputy Secretary of State becoming President. But the Report is meant to impart more than just an action-movie experience – the Commission also points out flaws with the rules concerning presidential succession and proposes ways to fix them.

For one thing, the authors note that every member of the line of succession lives in Washington, D.C. If a terrorist attack were to decimate the city, those in line for the Presidency could all be wiped out, leaving only chaos at the helm.

In addition, the report criticises the inclusion of the legislative branch in the line of succession, which they claim could lead to dramatic reconfigurations of the American government. Imagine Speaker Newt Gingrich ascending to the Presidency if President Clinton and Vice-President Gore were incapacitated, or if President Reagan and Vice-President Bush were to be succeeded by a President Tip O’Neil. As the authors of the report suggest, a political zealot could seek to change the party in control of the executive branch with just one attack.

Moreover, one must wonder whether the President pro tempore, usually a person of considerable age, should be in the line of succession. After all, it is hard to imagine that Sen. Strom Thurmond, who served as the President pro tempore at the age of ninety-eight, would be able to competently handle the rigours that come with the office of the President.

Also at issue is the House Speaker’s inherent conflict of interest. After all, the Speaker presides over any move to impeach the President and holds great sway over the confirmation of a Vice-President. This could lead to sticky situations if a conniving Speaker were to try to manoeuvre him or herself into the Oval Office. For example, when the Vice-Presidency lay open in 1973 and Nixon’s impeachment loomed, House Speaker Carl Albert was next in line to the Presidency. At this time, some speculated that the Speaker might delay Gerald Ford’s confirmation in order to take the White House for himself.

So what should be done? The report’s prescriptions are simple yet innovative – to remove members of the legislative branch from the line of succession and reorder it to: Vice-President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Defense, and Attorney General, followed by four or five former high government officials living outside of Washington, D.C. that would be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

The situations imagined by the Commission are truly horrific, but their recommendations are pressing. Should the Commission’s worst fears ever bleed into reality, the United States would be substantially more secure if these suggestions were adopted. In the moments when the United States is particularly vulnerable, the nation’s government needs to be protected by clear and proper rules for Presidential succession.