A designated survivor (or designated successor) is a member of the United States Cabinet who is appointed 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 maintain continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic occurrence which kills many officials in the presidential line of succession. Were such an event to occur, 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.
The practice of naming a designated survivor originated during the Cold War amid fears of a nuclear attack. Only Cabinet members who are eligible to succeed to the presidency (i.e., natural-born citizens over the age of 35) are chosen as designated survivors. For example, Secretary of State Madeline Albright was not a natural-born citizen (having immigrated to the US at age 9 from Czechoslovakia), and was thus skipped in the official line of presidential succession. The designated survivor is provided presidential-level security and transport for the duration of the event. An aide carries the 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 which 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 her 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 is higher in the line of succession.
Read more about Designated Survivor: List of Some Designated Survivors
Famous quotes containing the words designated and/or survivor:
“The values to which the conservative appeals are inevitably caricatured by the individuals designated to put them into practice.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)
“You’re looking, sir, at a very dull survivor of a very gaudy life. Crippled, paralyzed in both legs. Very little I can eat, and my sleep is so near waking that it’s hardly worth the name. I seem to exist largely on heat, like a newborn spider.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)