Designated survivor

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use mdy dates In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is a person in the presidential line of succession who is kept distant from others in the line when they are gathered together, to reduce the chance that everyone in the line will be unable to take over the presidency in a catastrophic or mass-casualty event. The person is chosen to stay at an undisclosed secure location, away from such events such as State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations. The designation of a survivor is intended to prevent the decapitation of the government and to safeguard continuity in the presidency if the president, the vice president, and others in the presidential line of succession die. The procedure began in the 1950s, during the Cold War, with the idea that a nuclear attack could kill government officials and the U.S. government would collapse.

In such an event, the surviving official highest in the line of succession in the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, who might be the designated survivor, would become acting president of the United States. The designated survivor must be eligible to serve as president. The designated survivor usually is a member of the president's Cabinet and is chosen by the president.

Being the designated survivor does not guarantee that this official will be the person to assume the presidency in such a situation. For the 2010 State of the Union address, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of housing and urban development, was the designated survivor, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also was absent from the address, for a conference in London; had a calamity occurred, Clinton, not Donovan, would have become acting president, because her office was higher in the line of succession.<ref name=sou/>

Congress also designates members of the Senate and House (one from each party) to become congressional "designated survivors" to maintain the existence of Congress in a mass-casualty event.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Selection

In a 2016 interview, Jon Favreau, a speechwriter for President Barack Obama, said that the procedure for picking a designated survivor for a State of the Union address was "entirely random", but later clarified that the content of the speech played a role in who was permitted to be absent. Favreau said that for a State of the Union address in which Obama's education policy was a major focus, for example, the secretary of education, Arne Duncan, was not chosen as the designated survivor, because it was thought that he should attend and represent his department.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

List of designated survivors

Date	Occasion	Designee	Position	Notes
January 25, 1984	State of the Union	Samuel Pierce	Secretary of Housing and Urban Development	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Senate">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>1984: UPI, "Washington Dateline." January 25, 1984</ref><ref name="sotu2013"/>
January 21, 1985	Presidential Inauguration	Margaret Heckler	Secretary of Health and Human Services	citation	CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref>
February 6, 1985	State of the Union	Malcolm Baldrige	Secretary of Commerce	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>1985: UPI, "Washington News." February 6, 1985</ref>
February 4, 1986	State of the Union	John Block	Secretary of Agriculture	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>1986: UPI, "Washington News." February 4, 1986</ref>
January 27, 1987	State of the Union	Richard Lyng		<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>1987: UPI, "Washington News." January 28, 1987</ref>
January 25, 1988	State of the Union	Donald Hodel	Secretary of the Interior	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/>
February 9, 1989	Presidential Address to Joint Session of CongressTemplate:Efn	Lauro Cavazos	Secretary of Education	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
January 31, 1990	State of the Union	Edward J. Derwinski	Secretary of Veterans Affairs	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>1990: Washington Post, Page C3. January 31, 1991</ref>
January 29, 1991	State of the Union	Manuel Lujan	Secretary of the Interior	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>1991: Washington Post, Page C3. January 31, 1991</ref>
January 28, 1992	State of the Union	Ed Madigan	Secretary of Agriculture	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/>
February 17, 1993	Presidential Address to Joint Session of CongressTemplate:Efn	Bruce Babbitt	Secretary of the Interior	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/>
January 25, 1994	State of the Union	Mike Espy	Secretary of Agriculture	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/>
January 24, 1995	State of the Union	Federico Peña	Secretary of Transportation	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/>
January 23, 1996	State of the Union	Donna Shalala	Secretary of Health and Human Services	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>1996: USA Today, Page A12. February 5, 1997</ref>
February 4, 1997	State of the Union	Dan Glickman	Secretary of Agriculture	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>1997: Washington Post, "Agriculture's Glickman Draws Doomsday Duty for Address." Page A13. February 4, 1997</ref>
January 27, 1998	State of the Union	William Daley	Secretary of Commerce	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/>
January 19, 1999	State of the Union	Andrew Cuomo	Secretary of Housing and Urban Development	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
January 27, 2000	State of the Union	Bill Richardson	Secretary of Energy	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>2000: The Washington Post, "The Reliable Source." Page C3. January 28, 2000</ref>
February 27, 2001	Presidential Address to Joint Session of CongressTemplate:Efn	Anthony Principi	Secretary of Veterans Affairs	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/>
September 11–14, 2001	Following the September 11 attacks	Donald Evans	Secretary of Commerce	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/>
September 20, 2001	Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress (following the September 11 attacks)	Dick Cheney	Vice President	<ref name=sou/><ref>2001: The New York Times, "Cabinet's 'Designated Absentee' Stays Away." Page A23. January 30, 2002</ref>
		Tommy Thompson	Secretary of Health and Human Services
January 29, 2002	State of the Union	Gale Norton	Secretary of the Interior	<ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
January 28, 2003	State of the Union	John Ashcroft	Attorney General	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
		Norman Mineta	Secretary of Transportation
January 20, 2004	State of the Union	Donald Evans	Secretary of Commerce	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>2004: AP, "Four to Miss Speech Due to Security." January 20, 2004</ref>
January 20, 2005	Presidential Inauguration	Gale Norton	Secretary of the Interior	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
February 2, 2005	State of the Union	Ted Stevens	President pro tempore of the SenateTemplate:Efn	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
		Donald Evans	Secretary of Commerce
January 31, 2006	State of the Union	Ted Stevens	President pro tempore of the SenateTemplate:Efn	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>2006: The Philadelphia Inquirer, "A Message of Energy, Strength." February 1, 2006.</ref>
		Jim Nicholson	Secretary of Veterans Affairs
January 23, 2007	State of the Union	Alberto Gonzales	Attorney General	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>2007: The Washington Post, "The Reliable Source." Page C3. January 25, 2007.</ref>
January 28, 2008	State of the Union	Dirk Kempthorne	Secretary of the Interior	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 20, 2009	Presidential Inauguration	Robert Gates	Secretary of Defense	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
February 24, 2009	Presidential Address to Joint Session of CongressTemplate:Efn	Eric Holder	Attorney General	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
September 9, 2009	Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress (Health Care Speech to Congress)	Steven Chu	Secretary of Energy	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 27, 2010	State of the Union	Hillary ClintonTemplate:Efn	Secretary of State	<ref name=sou/><ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>2006: CNN, "Secretary Clinton misses State of the Union speech." January 27, 2010.</ref>
		Shaun Donovan	Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
January 25, 2011	State of the Union	Ken Salazar	Secretary of the Interior	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 24, 2012	State of the Union	Tom Vilsack	Secretary of Agriculture	<ref name="Senate"/><ref name="sotu2013"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
January 21, 2013	Presidential Inauguration	Eric Shinseki	Secretary of Veterans Affairs	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
February 12, 2013	State of the Union	Steven Chu	Secretary of Energy	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 28, 2014	State of the Union	Ernest Moniz		citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 20, 2015	State of the Union	Anthony Foxx	Secretary of Transportation	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 12, 2016	State of the Union	Orrin Hatch	President pro tempore of the SenateTemplate:Efn	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
		Jeh Johnson	Secretary of Homeland Security	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 20, 2017	Presidential Inauguration	Orrin Hatch	President pro tempore of the SenateTemplate:Efn	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
		Jeh Johnson	Secretary of Homeland Security	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
February 28, 2017	Presidential Address to Joint Session of CongressTemplate:Efn	David Shulkin	Secretary of Veterans Affairs	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 30, 2018	State of the Union	Sonny Perdue	Secretary of Agriculture	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
February 5, 2019	State of the Union	Rick Perry	Secretary of Energy	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
February 4, 2020	State of the Union	David Bernhardt	Secretary of the Interior	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 20, 2021	Presidential Inauguration	UndisclosedTemplate:Efn		<ref name=Kime/>
April 28, 2021	Presidential Address to Joint Session of CongressTemplate:Efn	NoneTemplate:Efn		citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
March 1, 2022	State of the Union	Gina Raimondo	Secretary of Commerce	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
February 7, 2023	State of the Union	Marty Walsh	Secretary of Labor	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
March 7, 2024	State of the Union	Miguel Cardona	Secretary of Education	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
January 20, 2025	Presidential Inauguration	None		citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
March 4, 2025	Presidential Address to Joint Session of CongressTemplate:Efn	Doug Collins	Secretary of Veterans Affairs	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• Decapitation strike

External links

• U.S. Senate's list of cabinet members who did not attend the State of the Union Address (since 1984)
• Cabinet Members Who Did Not Attend the State of the Union Address Reagan (1984) – Trump The American Presidency Project [online]. Gerhard Peters (database). Santa Barbara, California: University of California (hosted).