Designated survivor
This article is about the U.S. contingency plan against catastrophic loss of its leadership. For the 2016 TV series, see Designated Survivor (TV series). In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is an individual in the presidential line of succession, usually a member of the United States Cabinet, who is arranged to be at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location when the President and the country's other top leaders (e.g., Vice President and Cabinet members) are gathered at a single location, such as during State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations.
This is intended to guarantee continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic occurrence that kills the President and many officials in the presidential line of succession, such as a mass shooting, bombing or attack. If such an event occurred, killing both the President and Vice President, the surviving official highest in the line, possibly the designated survivor, would become the Acting President of the United States under the Presidential Succession Act.
History
The practice of naming a designated survivor originated during the Cold War with its risk of nuclear attack. Only Cabinet members who are eligible to succeed to the presidency (i.e., natural-born citizens over the age of 35, who have resided in the United States for at least 14 years) are chosen as designated survivors. For example, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was not a natural-born citizen (having emigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia) and was thus not in the line of presidential succession. The designated survivor is provided presidential-level security and transport for the duration of the event. An aide carries a nuclear football with them. However, they are not given a briefing on what to do in the event that the other successors to the presidency are killed.
Since 2005, members of Congress have also served as designated survivors. In addition to serving as a rump legislature in the event that all of their colleagues were killed, a surviving Representative and Senator could ascend to the offices of Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate, offices that immediately follow the Vice President in the line of succession. If such a legislative survivor were the sitting Speaker or President Pro Tempore – as for the 2005, 2006, and 2007 State of the Union addresses, in which President Pro Tempore Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) or Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) was also a designated survivor – he or she would become the acting president rather than the surviving Cabinet member. However, it is unclear whether another legislator could do so without first being elected to that leadership position by a quorum of their respective house.
For the 2010 State of the Union Address, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan was the designated survivor. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also absent from the address. However, Secret Service rules prevented Clinton from being named the designated survivor since it was public knowledge that she was at a conference in London during the event. Had a calamity occurred in Washington, Clinton (not Donovan) would have become Acting President, as her office was higher in the line of succession.
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