Thread: Homework Help Please

The order of succession upon the demise, removal, resignation, or incapacity of a president has been changed four times in the country's history. Under the Constitution, the vice president is the undisputed successor to the president. But should both the president and vice president be unable to govern, Congress mandated in 1792 that the president pro tempore (temporary president) of the Senate or the Speaker of the House, in that order, succeed to the presidency, but only for the purpose of ordering a new election. In 1886 Congress changed the succession rules so that if both the presidency and vice presidency were vacant, the secretary of state and then other Cabinet members in their order of seniority would become president. In 1947 Congress again changed the order of succession and this order remains in effect today: the Speaker of the House, followed by the Senate's president pro tem, the secretary of state, and then other members of the Cabinet assume the presidency if there is no president or vice president. In 1967 the 25th Amendment to the Constitution described the conditions under which the vice president could temporarily replace an incapacitated president.

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_...mbers.html#p20

If the President pro tempore cannot serve, then the following succession will apply: Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

that was THIRD grade homework? yikes!

My answer was going to be "Speaker of the House" based on watching "West Wing" last season ....

Boy, I never would have made it out of elementary school. I hadn't a clue to the answers although I knew I knew them at one time.

Yup, it's the Speaker of the House!