What is the order of succession to the Presidency after the Vice President?
Springfield, New Jersey – 3/8/01 The Vice-President is named successor by the 25th Amendment to the Constitution. After the V-P, Congress fixes the order of succession. The current law which governs the order is the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. To bring it close to home, here is the mandated order if the unthinkable were to happen: (1) Vice-President, Dick Cheney (2) Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert (3) President pro Tempore of the Senate, Strom Thurmond (4) Secretary of State, Colin Powell (5) Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O’Neill (6) Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld (7) Attorney General, John Ashcroft (8) Secretary of the Interior, Gail Norton (9) Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman (10) Secretary of Commerce, Dan Evans (11) Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao [who was born in Taiwan and would be skipped] (12) Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson (13) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Mel Martinez [who was born in Cuba and would be skipped
