Truman had spent ten years in the Senate and more than a decade in other elected offices. He believed that, unlike cabinet secretaries, congressional leaders had been elected, giving them greater legitimacy to assume the presidency. Thus, the current hybrid structure was created, with successive President and President pro tempore, followed by members of the cabinet. The U.S. Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 describe the presidential order of succession. The order of Cabinet officers is in the order in which their agencies are established. But throughout its history, America has had three acts of presidential succession that illustrate the range of possibilities Congress could entail. The order of succession determines that the position is transferred to the Vice-President; if the Vice President is vacant at the same time, or if the Vice President is also unable to work, the powers and duties of the President pass to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, and then to the Cabinet Secretaries, depending on eligibility. The assassination of President James Garfield triggered the Presidential Succession Act of 1886. When Vice President Chester Arthur took office, the positions of Vice President, President pro tempore of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives were vacant. Therefore, this succession bill revolved around the question of what would happen if the Speaker pro tempore and the Speaker of the House of Representatives were vacant. This act ensured that the next in order would be the cabinet secretaries in the order of the offices. The creation of this succession would also minimize the likelihood that the person holding the presidency would come from another party, thereby reducing chaos and division within the government.
Reinstating the president and president pro tempore (both elected) to the succession and presenting them to the cabinet members (all appointed by the president with the Council and approval of the Senate) was the idea of Harry S. Truman. Personally handed over to Congress in June 1945, two months after he became president of Franklin D. Roosevelt`s death reflected Truman`s proposition that the president should not have the power to “appoint the person who would be my immediate successor in the event of death or incapacity” and that the presidency should, whenever possible, “be filled by an elected official.” [12] [16] In 2016-2017, the Second Fordham University School of Law Clinic on Presidential Succession developed a series of proposals to “address succession issues that have received little attention from academics and commissions in recent decades”; The recommendations included: To address issues that the Constitution did not address regarding presidential succession, Congress passed several presidential succession bills. These inheritance laws were intended to fill gaps that the Constitution and previous laws had not filled. The wording of the current Presidential Succession Act is less clear than that of the Senate Confirmation Act of 1886. The 1886 Act refers to “officers appointed by the council and the assent of the Senate to the office specified therein. The current law applies only to “officers appointed by and with the Council and with the consent of the Senate.” Literally, this means that the current law allows acting secretaries to succeed as long as they are confirmed by the Senate for a position (even if, for example, they are the second or third commander within a department). It is customary for a second commanding officer to become acting secretary when the secretary leaves office.
Although there is some controversy about this provision, the wording clearly allows for the placing of sitting secretaries in the line of succession. (We spoke with acting secretaries who told us they had been placed in line to the throne.) [65] Who argued that the Speaker of the House of Representatives should be the next Vice President in the event of a presidential succession. If the President is obstructed or removed from office or has died, what does the Vice-President do: the “powers and duties of the said office” or the office itself? The negotiations of the Convention led to the conclusion that the drafters intended the Vice-President to remain Vice-President and exercise the powers of the President until, in the words of the final clause, “a President is elected”. However, when President Harrison died in 1841, Vice President Tyler, after initial hesitation, took the position that he was automatically president,126 a precedent that was later followed and now definitively settled by Section 1 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. This amendment also addresses a number of other pressing issues relating to the incompetence of the President and succession. The President of the United States is the head of state of the United States, the chief executive of the federal government, and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The United States was the first nation to create the position of president as head of state in a modern republic. The importance of presidential succession is the course of action that comes into play when the role of a president becomes vacant due to death, impeachment, and impeachment, or when the president is unable to perform his duties.