I was surprised to read an article stating there was no "Designated
Survivor" for the Inauguration. I'm guessing the article was just wrong
about this, but it did occur to me that you have an unusual situation
with an Inauguration in that the new Cabinet Secretaries had not yet
been formally approved. So it does raise the question of what would
have happened if a disaster had occurred and the president, VP, Speaker
and Pres Pro Tem were all suddenly unavailable due to death or serious
injury, and no Cabinet Secretaries had yet been approved so all Cabinet departments were effectively being run by acting leaders. Does the presidential Line of Succession law address this?

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On 1/22/2025 8:35 AM, Rick wrote:

I was surprised to read an article stating there was no "Designated
Survivor" for the Inauguration.  I'm guessing the article was just wrong about this, but it did occur to me that you have an unusual situation
with an Inauguration in that the new Cabinet Secretaries had not yet
been formally approved.  So it does raise the question of what would
have happened if a disaster had occurred and the president, VP, Speaker
and Pres Pro Tem were all suddenly unavailable due to death or serious injury, and no Cabinet Secretaries had yet been approved so all Cabinet departments were effectively being run by acting leaders.  Does the presidential Line of Succession law address this?

AFAIK there is no automatic removal from office for a cabinet member
just because the president has changed.. The secretary of "XXX" is
still in office until he/she resigns or is fired. Possibly some of Biden appointed cabinet members were out of town.

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On 1/22/2025 7:46 PM, Roy wrote:

On 1/22/2025 8:35 AM, Rick wrote:

I was surprised to read an article stating there was no "Designated
Survivor" for the Inauguration.  I'm guessing the article was just
wrong about this, but it did occur to me that you have an unusual
situation with an Inauguration in that the new Cabinet Secretaries had
not yet been formally approved.  So it does raise the question of what
would have happened if a disaster had occurred and the president, VP,
Speaker and Pres Pro Tem were all suddenly unavailable due to death or
serious injury, and no Cabinet Secretaries had yet been approved so
all Cabinet departments were effectively being run by acting leaders.
Does the presidential Line of Succession law address this?

.

AFAIK there is no automatic removal from office for a cabinet member
just because the president has changed..  The secretary of "XXX" is
still in office until he/she resigns or is fired. Possibly some of Biden appointed cabinet members were out of town.

But by tradition, cabinet secretaries generally submit their
resignations when a new administration comes in, and my understanding is
that at least some of Biden's Cabinet officials resigned early, like
Merrick Garland. We also saw Trump signing several papers shortly after
his inauguration appointing various people as temporary heads of various departments until his official appointments were all in place.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 1/22/2025 11:25 PM, Rick wrote:

On 1/22/2025 7:46 PM, Roy wrote:

On 1/22/2025 8:35 AM, Rick wrote:

I was surprised to read an article stating there was no "Designated
Survivor" for the Inauguration.  I'm guessing the article was just
wrong about this, but it did occur to me that you have an unusual
situation with an Inauguration in that the new Cabinet Secretaries
had not yet been formally approved.  So it does raise the question of
what would have happened if a disaster had occurred and the
president, VP, Speaker and Pres Pro Tem were all suddenly unavailable
due to death or serious injury, and no Cabinet Secretaries had yet
been approved so all Cabinet departments were effectively being run
by acting leaders. Does the presidential Line of Succession law
address this?

.
AFAIK there is no automatic removal from office for a cabinet member
just because the president has changed..  The secretary of "XXX" is
still in office until he/she resigns or is fired. Possibly some of
Biden appointed cabinet members were out of town.

But by tradition, cabinet secretaries generally submit their
resignations when a new administration comes in, and my understanding is
that at least some of Biden's Cabinet officials resigned early, like
Merrick Garland.  We also saw Trump signing several papers shortly after
his inauguration appointing various people as temporary heads of various departments until his official appointments were all in place.

The question has been addressed here with regards to the 25th amendment
has to an acting cabinet member being eligible to vote to remove the
president. A similar question arises with the line of succession and an
acting cabinet member.

As far as a resignation the question is when is it effective. Someone
submits a resignation but it isn't "effective" until after the new
president accepts it. A resignation could also be effective pending the
Senate confirmation of the replacement.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Roy <[email protected]> writes:

The question has been addressed here with regards to the 25th amendment
has to an acting cabinet member being eligible to vote to remove the >president. A similar question arises with the line of succession and an >acting cabinet member.

I recall when Obama was preparing to be sworn in, SecDef
Rebert Gates was asked to not resign beforehand so as to have
continuity. There was heightened concern of an assassination
attempt during the inauguration. He did so, was off-site, and he
then remained as SecDef for a few years after.

--
A host is a host from coast to [email protected]
& no one will talk to a host that's close..........................
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433

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On 2/4/2025 11:30 AM, David Lesher wrote:

Roy <[email protected]> writes:

The question has been addressed here with regards to the 25th amendment
has to an acting cabinet member being eligible to vote to remove the
president. A similar question arises with the line of succession and an
acting cabinet member.

I recall when Obama was preparing to be sworn in, SecDef
Rebert Gates was asked to not resign beforehand so as to have
continuity. There was heightened concern of an assassination
attempt during the inauguration. He did so, was off-site, and he
then remained as SecDef for a few years after.

But that's a different situation because Obama had already decided to
keep Gates on in that role. There have been numerous other cases where
a Cabinet Secretary was asked to stay on for a succeeding administration
(even in cases where the party changed, like with Obama), but this was
clearly a case where all of Biden's Secretaries would have been asked to
resign and at least some did do before the Inauguration. I was just
curious (and still am) whether any acting Cabinet secretary or any other official was deliberately kept off-site during the Inauguration. Maybe
for security reasons, they just don't talk about that.

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Here is an alternative. 91 year old Senator Grassley might not have
wanted to attend the inauguration so as Senate president pro tempore he
is 3rd in line and could have moved to a safe location for the day.

There are acting presidents pro tempore that are frequently appointed to preside over the Senate but not sure how they would fall in the line of succession,

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On 2/4/2025 5:07 PM, Roy wrote:

Here is an alternative.  91 year old Senator Grassley might not have
wanted to attend the inauguration so as Senate president pro tempore he
is 3rd in line and could have moved to a safe location for the day.

There are acting presidents pro tempore that are frequently appointed to preside over the Senate but not sure how they would fall in the line of succession,

Actually Grassley did attend the inauguration and apparently sat in the
front row. See here:

https://cbs2iowa.com/news/local/ia-house-speaker-pat-grassley-calls-trumps-inauguration-speech-breath-of-fresh-air

And from what I can find online (including Wikipedia), there was no
official Designated Survivor for the Inauguration this year. See here:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/trump-inauguration-designated-survivor/6114401/

And here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designated_survivor

My guess is that because not every Congressman attended the Inauguration
(at minimum, there were probably several democrats who boycotted), in
the event of a disaster, whoever was the senior most surviving member
would be chosen as acting speaker or whatever to assume the reins. And
if all Congressman and Senators were taken out, I'm guessing the senior
most member of the State department would assume the rule of Acting
Secretary and thus become Acting President.

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