# Designated survivor

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.
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.

## 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.

## List of designated survivors

| Date | Occasion | Designee | Position |
| January 25, 1984 | State of the Union | Samuel Pierce | Secretary of Housing and Urban Development |
| January 21, 1985 | Presidential Inauguration | Margaret Heckler | Secretary of Health and Human Services |
| February 6, 1985 | State of the Union | Malcolm Baldrige | Secretary of Commerce |
| February 4, 1986 | State of the Union | John Block | Secretary of Agriculture |
| January 27, 1987 | State of the Union | Richard Lyng | Secretary of Agriculture |
| January 25, 1988 | State of the Union | Donald Hodel | Secretary of the Interior |
| February 9, 1989 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress | Lauro Cavazos | Secretary of Education |
| January 31, 1990 | State of the Union | Edward J. Derwinski | Secretary of Veterans Affairs |
| January 29, 1991 | State of the Union | Manuel Lujan | Secretary of the Interior |
| January 28, 1992 | State of the Union | Ed Madigan | Secretary of Agriculture |
| February 17, 1993 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress | Bruce Babbitt | Secretary of the Interior |
| January 25, 1994 | State of the Union | Mike Espy | Secretary of Agriculture |
| January 24, 1995 | State of the Union | Federico Peña | Secretary of Transportation |
| January 23, 1996 | State of the Union | Donna Shalala | Secretary of Health and Human Services |
| February 4, 1997 | State of the Union | Dan Glickman | Secretary of Agriculture |
| January 27, 1998 | State of the Union | William Daley | Secretary of Commerce |
| January 19, 1999 | State of the Union | Andrew Cuomo | Secretary of Housing and Urban Development |
| January 27, 2000 | State of the Union | Bill Richardson | Secretary of Energy |
| February 27, 2001 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress | Anthony Principi | Secretary of Veterans Affairs |
| September 11–14, 2001 | Following the September 11 attacks | Donald Evans | Secretary of Commerce |
| September 20, 2001 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress (following the September 11 attacks) | Dick Cheney | Vice President |
| September 20, 2001 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress (following the September 11 attacks) | Tommy Thompson | Secretary of Health and Human Services |
| January 29, 2002 | State of the Union | Gale Norton | Secretary of the Interior |
| January 28, 2003 | State of the Union | John Ashcroft | Attorney General |
| January 28, 2003 | State of the Union | Norman Mineta | Secretary of Transportation |
| January 20, 2004 | State of the Union | Donald Evans | Secretary of Commerce |
| January 20, 2005 | Presidential Inauguration | Gale Norton | Secretary of the Interior |
| February 2, 2005 | State of the Union | Ted Stevens | President pro tempore of the Senate |
| February 2, 2005 | State of the Union | Donald Evans | Secretary of Commerce |
| January 31, 2006 | State of the Union | Ted Stevens | President pro tempore of the Senate |
| January 31, 2006 | State of the Union | Jim Nicholson | Secretary of Veterans Affairs |
| January 23, 2007 | State of the Union | Alberto Gonzales | Attorney General |
| January 28, 2008 | State of the Union | Dirk Kempthorne | Secretary of the Interior |
| January 20, 2009 | Presidential Inauguration | Robert Gates | Secretary of Defense |
| February 24, 2009 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress | Eric Holder | Attorney General |
| September 9, 2009 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress (Health Care Speech to Congress) | Steven Chu | Secretary of Energy |
| January 27, 2010 | State of the Union | Hillary Clinton | Secretary of State |
| January 27, 2010 | State of the Union | Shaun Donovan | Secretary of Housing and Urban Development |
| January 25, 2011 | State of the Union | Ken Salazar | Secretary of the Interior |
| January 24, 2012 | State of the Union | Tom Vilsack | Secretary of Agriculture |
| January 21, 2013 | Presidential Inauguration | Eric Shinseki | Secretary of Veterans Affairs |
| February 12, 2013 | State of the Union | Steven Chu | Secretary of Energy |
| January 28, 2014 | State of the Union | Ernest Moniz | Secretary of Energy |
| January 20, 2015 | State of the Union | Anthony Foxx | Secretary of Transportation |
| January 12, 2016 | State of the Union | Orrin Hatch | President pro tempore of the Senate |
| January 12, 2016 | State of the Union | Jeh Johnson | Secretary of Homeland Security |
| January 20, 2017 | Presidential Inauguration | Orrin Hatch | President pro tempore of the Senate |
| January 20, 2017 | Presidential Inauguration | Jeh Johnson | Secretary of Homeland Security |
| February 28, 2017 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress | David Shulkin | Secretary of Veterans Affairs |
| January 30, 2018 | State of the Union | Sonny Perdue | Secretary of Agriculture |
| February 5, 2019 | State of the Union | Rick Perry | Secretary of Energy |
| February 4, 2020 | State of the Union | David Bernhardt | Secretary of the Interior |
| January 20, 2021 | Presidential Inauguration | Undisclosed | Undisclosed |
| April 28, 2021 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress | None | None |
| March 1, 2022 | State of the Union | Gina Raimondo | Secretary of Commerce |
| February 7, 2023 | State of the Union | Marty Walsh | Secretary of Labor |
| March 7, 2024 | State of the Union | Miguel Cardona | Secretary of Education |
| January 20, 2025 | Presidential Inauguration | None | None |
| March 4, 2025 | Presidential Address to Joint Session of Congress | Doug Collins | Secretary of Veterans Affairs |