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Season Four Research Files
Episode Twenty-two
4:00am - 5:00am
In 1947, the order of Presidential succession was changed with an Act that placed the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro tempore of the Senate in line behind the Vice President. (The president pro tempore presides over the Senate when the Vice President is absent and is traditionally the senior member of the majority party.)
The line of Presidential succession then extends to the Cabinet member executive department heads in the order in which their agencies were created, with the State Department being first. An official cannot succeed to the presidency unless that person meets the Constitutional requirements (i.e. being born an American citizen).
The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, constitutionally provided terms for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. Previously, when a president died in office, the vice president succeeded him and the vice presidency then remained vacant.
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