HB 22-07: Presidential Succession Act of 2020 (Passed)

[RC]

Aye

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Is that constitutional though?

Certainly. Article III invests Congress with full power to make all laws "necessary for the enforcement of the Constitution and federal law"; I struggle to conceive of anything more necessary for the enforcement of laws than a head of government.

I would point out, thumb, that if the entire line of succession is empty, the recently passed Federal Electoral Act authorizes the moderator of the board to hold emergency elections for the House; who would then pick a Speaker to be elevated to the Presidency. So there already is an emergency fail-safe in place.

Obviously I'm biased since I wrote most of the FEA but I personally think that giving the moderator full control during such a crisis makes more sense than hoping the three regional executives can somehow sort things out even when the rest of the government is in complete chaos - we could easily have a situation where two executives can't agree on something, or one of the regional executive positions is disputed between two or more candidates, or something like that. In a crisis where all the positions in the federal government are unfilled or disputed, the moderation team is, in my opinion, the only body whose relative stability can be relied upon.

That's probably true right now, but is hasn't always been historically and won't remain so forever. When Gustaf was the the only mod of AFE, it could takes weeks if not months for him to respond to requests; and while Yankee has been much more prompt, there are sometimes long periods when his access to the forum is limited (not saying that as a criticism of you, Yankee, just pointing it out). Of course, we've had inactive governors, too, so perhaps it would be a good idea to keep both?

Combination of work, tech failures and work limiting my time to fix said tech failures. And a fall back computer that is slowly becoming harder and harder to get things to work on the internet for lack of browser support.

[thumb21]

Passes

5-0-2-2

[thumb21]

AN ACT
to amend the presidential line of succession

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives, in Congress assembled:

Section 1 (Title)
i. The title of this Act shall be, the "Presidential Succession Act of 2020."

Section 2 (Succession)
i. If, by reason of death, resignation, or removal from office, there is neither a president nor a vice president to discharge the powers and duties of the office of president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, upon their resignation as speaker and as representatives, shall become president.
ii. If, by reason of death, resignation, or removal from office, there is neither a president nor a vice president to discharge the powers and duties of the office of president, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives being either ineligible or unelected, the president pro-tempore of the Senate, upon their resignation as president pro-tempore and as senator, shall become president.
iii. If, by reason of death, resignation, or removal from office, there is neither a president nor a vice president to discharge the powers and duties of the office of president, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro-tempore of the Senate being either ineligible or unelected, the officer of the Republic of Atlasia highest on the following list not themselves ineligible shall become president: the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Federal Elections, the Registrar General.
iv. If, by reason of death, resignation, or removal from office, there is neither a president nor a vice president to discharge the powers and duties of the office of president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro-tempore of the Senate being either ineligible or unelected, and the officers of the Republic of Atlasia being similarly ineligible and unappointed, the most senior senator by period of continuous service not ineligible shall become president.
v. If, by reason of death, resignation, or removal from office, there is neither a president nor a vice president to discharge the powers and duties of the office of president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro-tempore of the Senate being either ineligible or unelected, the officers of the Republic of Atlasia being similarly ineligible and unappointed, and there being no senator eligible to assume the presidency, the most senior member of the House of Representatives by continuous service not ineligible shall become president.
vi. If, by reason of death, resignation, or removal from office, there is neither a president nor a vice president to discharge the powers and duties of the office of president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro-tempore of the Senate being either ineligible or unelected, the officers of the Republic of Atlasia being similarly ineligible and unappointed, and there being no member of the Senate or the House of Representatives eligible to assume the presidency, the chief justice of the Supreme Court shall become president.
vii. If, by reason of death, resignation, or removal from office, there is neither a president nor a vice president to discharge the powers and duties of the office of president, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro-tempore of the Senate being either ineligible or unelected, the officers of the Republic of Atlasia and the chief Justice of the Supreme Court being similarly ineligible and unappointed, and there being no member of the Senate or the House of Representatives eligible to assume the presidency, the most senior justice or associate justice of the Supreme Court by continuous service not ineligible shall become president.
viii. If, by reason of death, resignation, or removal from office, there is neither a president nor a vice president to discharge the powers and duties of the office of president, and there is no person eligible to assume the presidency among those hitherto designated, the moderators responsible for the "Atlas Fantasy Elections" board and the chief executives of the several regions shall organize emergency elections for president, vice president and congress as soon as they shall judge expedient, and in the meantime shall elect one of their number as interim president.

Section 3 (Interim president)
i. If, at the hour appointed for the inauguration of the president and vice president, there is neither a president-elect nor a vice president-elect yet eligible to assume the presidency, then the powers and duties of that office shall temporarily devolve upon an interim president until such time as there shall be either an eligible president-elect or a vice president-elect.
ii. Succession to the interim presidency shall follow the order established by §2 of this Act.

Section 4 (Right of refusal)
i. Any designated to succeed to the presidency or interim presidency under the provisions of this of this Act shall reserve the right issue a written and public refusal to succession, in which event the duty will pass on to the next in line.

House of Representatives
Passed the House of Representatives 5-0-2-2