What to Know About the Designated Survivor

When President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, one member of his Cabinet is not going to be in attendance as a result of they are going to have been taped to function the designated survivor.

The designated survivor is an official in the presidential line of succession who is chosen to skip a perform that convenes the federal authorities in a single place—the State of the Union, inaugurations, or the President’s joint congressional handle, as an example. That particular person is then stored in a safe, undisclosed location away from the space, in order that the full authorities wouldn’t be worn out if a catastrophic occasion had been to happen.

The US Constitution does not require a chosen survivor or explicitly point out the course of of choosing and sequestering a chosen survivor. But the follow is believed to have began throughout the Cold War, when the US authorities was more and more involved about the chance of a nuclear strike from the Soviet Union.

Read extra: A Brief History of the State of the Union’s Designated Survivor

Here’s what to learn about the long-standing follow, and who has been chosen this yr.

Why is a chosen survivor chosen from the President’s Cabinet?

The designated survivor is supposed to protect the presidential line of succession, established by the Constitution, if some sort of catastrophic incident had been to happen that incapacitated the President and different leaders in his Administration and Congress. To that finish, the designated survivor is a authorities official who’s in the line of succession—sometimes, a member of the President’s Cabinet.

When Trump gave his joint congressional handle final March, as an example, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins served as the designated survivor.

How is the designated survivor chosen?

There isn’t any official course of or protocol for the way the designated survivor must be chosen. It’s believed that the President and/or the President’s Chief of Staff sometimes choose the designated survivor.

The designated survivor must be eligiblebeneath the Constitution, to function President, which means they have to be a natural-born American citizen and a minimum of 35 years of age.

Why do legislators additionally decide designated survivors?

Congressional leaders have additionally, in recent times, begun deciding on legislators to function designated survivors. some date the follow to the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist assaults in 2001. Those designated survivors will not be tapped to probably succeed the President, however to guarantee that the legislative department might proceed functioning in the occasion of a catastrophic incident.