I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6972 
To amend title 5, United States Code, to require an Executive agency whose 
head is a member of the National Security Council to notify the Execu-
tive Office of the President, the Comptroller General of the United 
States, and congressional leadership of such head becoming medically 
incapacitated within 24 hours, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 11, 2024 
Mrs. KIGGANS of Virginia (for herself, Mr. DAVIS of North Carolina, Mr. 
WITTMAN, Mr. FALLON, Mr. VAN ORDEN, Ms. MACE, Mr. GIMENEZ, Mr. 
MOYLAN, and Mr. OWENS) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 
A BILL 
To amend title 5, United States Code, to require an Execu-
tive agency whose head is a member of the National 
Security Council to notify the Executive Office of the 
President, the Comptroller General of the United States, 
and congressional leadership of such head becoming 
medically incapacitated within 24 hours, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Securing Chain of 
Command Continuity Act’’. 
SEC. 2. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEDICAL INCA-
PACITY NOTIFICATION ENHANCEMENT. 
Section 3349 of title 5, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section: 
‘‘(c)(1) Not later than 24 hours after the head of an 
Executive agency who is a member of the National Secu-
rity Council becomes medically incapacitated, the person 
serving in an acting capacity as such head or, if no person 
is so acting, the first assistant to the office of such head, 
shall submit to the Executive Office of the President, the 
Comptroller General of the United States, the Majority 
Leader of the Senate, the Minority Leader of the Senate, 
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Mi-
nority Leader of the House of Representatives a notifica-
tion that such head is medically incapacitated. 
‘‘(2) If the notification required by paragraph (1) 
with respect to a head of an Executive agency becoming 
medically incapacitated is not submitted in accordance 
with the requirements of such paragraph, not later than 
30 days after the date on which such head became subject 
to such medical incapacity the person serving in an acting 
capacity as such head or, if no person is so acting, the 
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first assistant to the office of such head, shall submit to 
the Executive Office of the President, the Comptroller 
General of the United States, the Majority Leader of the 
Senate, the Minority Leader of the Senate, the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, and the Minority Leader 
of the House of Representatives a report including— 
‘‘(A) the name of each individual who served in 
an acting capacity as such head pursuant to such 
medical incapacity and, for each such individual— 
‘‘(i) the dates of such service; 
‘‘(ii) whether such individual was author-
ized to serve in such acting capacity; and 
‘‘(iii) a comprehensive list of resources al-
located to such individual while serving in such 
acting capacity to ensure that such individual 
could perform the functions and duties of the 
office of such head; 
‘‘(B) an explanation why the notification re-
quired by paragraph (1) was not submitted in ac-
cordance with the requirements of such paragraph; 
‘‘(C) the dates during which such head was sub-
ject to such medical incapacity, including the date 
on which such head resumed performing the func-
tions and duties of the office of the head; and 
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‘‘(D) an explanation why such head was medi-
cally incapacitated. 
‘‘(3) In this subsection: 
‘‘(A) The terms ‘medical incapacity’ and ‘medi-
cally incapacitated’ mean, with respect to the head 
of an Executive agency, that such head is unable to 
perform the functions and duties of the office of 
such head due to sickness and such inability to per-
form the functions and duties of the office of such 
head constitutes a vacancy of the office of such head 
to which this section and sections 3345, 3346, 3347, 
3348, 3349a, 3349b, 3349c, and 3349d apply. 
‘‘(B) The term ‘National Security Council’ 
means the council established under section 101 of 
the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 
3021).’’. 
Æ 
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