The Twenty-Fifth Amendment

XXV
Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.


This is a fairly long amendment, due to its specificity, and that was exactly its point.

The processes had been mostly in place before. By the time of the amendment there had been presidential deaths from assassination and illness, impeachment, and long periods without a vice president. There had also been a time of an incapacitated president (Woodrow Wilson) where the situation was hidden by his wife and doctor.

Hammering out all of the details took a while, with many different proposals. In the case of Senator Estes Kefauver - for whom the disability question was very important - his own death kept him from seeing how things turned out.

However, since its ratification we have been through Nixon's resignation and an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. And even though the reaction of Reagan's Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, to the attempt ("I am in control here") while Vice President Bush was out of town seemed a little eager, things have nonetheless gone smoothly.

The amendment appears to have worked out.