whos next in charge after the president and vice president??

Question

i know im sounding pathetic, but i heard this tonight on leno, and i just dont remember

come people. thanks for your answers. half of you say the speaker of the house, the other say the secretary of state. which is correct???

Answer 1

The respective members of the Cabinet have command (or at least advisory power) over their respective departments. The Secretary of State is the most influential of those. (That's Condi)

In the event of a tragic mishap or act of war that incapacitates the President and Vice President, next-in-line for the White House is the Speaker of the House. (That's Pelosi)

Answer 2

The simple answer is Nancy Pelosi, followed by the Grand Kleagle of West Virginia, and then Condoleeza Rice.

Presidential succession (after the VP) is defined by act of Congress -- which has changed from time to time, including or excluding Congressional leaders (in 1886) then putting them back in in reversed order (in 1947). Next, the succession descends thru the Cabinet Departments in order of their creation.

Under the latest statute, the next in line (after Cheney) is Speaker Pelosi (D: CA), followed by the President pro Tempore of the Senate (Byrd of WV). Originally, the Speaker came after the Senate pro tem, then both were omitted, then it came back the other way around (avoiding the scenario where a Senator voting on impeachment might so elevate himself!)

Next, the succession act follows the heads of the executive departments (cabinet "secretaries") in order of their department's creation. The first five executive departments were headed by the Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, Attorney General, and the Postmaster General (Benjamin Franklin). However, Post Office is no longer an executive department, and the War Dept. was renamed to "Defense" -- so the next four in line are:
Condoleeza Rice
Paulson
Gates
Mukasey
After that, it goes down the line of departments:
Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, HHS, HUD, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans Affairs, and, lastly, Homeland Security. (There were some proposals to place Homeland Security up where the Navy used to be, but these failed and Chertoff is at the bottom).

However, Presidential succession skips over anybody who is not qualified to be President (i.e. native-born U.S. citizen, at least 35 years of age, and having met residency requirements). Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madelyn Albright were not in the line of succession, since he was born in Europe.

There used to be some provisions for acting Department heads, but tI don't see those in the current law. Taking the oath of office is also a requirement, but if If a VP succeeds to office that oath is merely "ceremonial" since the VP has already taken the same oath as the Pres.

By tradition, whenever there is Presidential inauguration, with the old and new President and VP together on the steps of the Capitol, and most of the Presidential appointees present for the occasion, one Cabinet member is placed out of town -- just in case.

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Answer 3

It is Nancy Pelosi, she leads congress. If anything should happen to those idiots, she will be in charge.

If you don't like what is happening how about impeaching Bush and Cheney for crimes against America?

There is a provision in the Constitution that allows WE the PEOPLE to do exactly that. Visit http://pepib.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage
Maybe if We the People grow a backbone, as a statement to the present administration, we can do exactly that. Of course We the People have never done this and because of this no one seems to know that this is possible.

I would love to send The Axis of Evil a message! How about you?

Also that action could prevent WW III that the Axis of Evil wants to employ.

Note: The Axis of Evil is the Bush Administration, in case you didn't catch on.

Answer 4

The Speaker of the House.

Why do you think the Republicans made such a big stink in the last General election.

The thought of a liberal, let alone a Californian Woman that close to seat of power. They are still uneasy in their gay pedophile supporting socks to this day, because of this.

Answer 5

The Speaker of the House. Everyone knows that.

Answer 6

The Speaker of the House. Right now that would be Nancy Pelosi.

Answer 7

Speaker of the House, no matter how many Secretary of State answers you get.

Answer 8

Speaker of the House is the correct answer.

Answer 9

I believe it is Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Answer 10

After the president and the vice president, the secretary of state is next in line.