If the new legislation to create the Department of Homeland Security is passed, how will it (if at all) change the the order of presidential succession?

Thanks
--Thaddeus

The tree of liberty should be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. -Thomas Jefferson

According to the The Learnng Network the order of succession is as follows:

The Vice President- Richard Cheney
Speaker of the House- John Dennis Hastert
President pro tempore of the Senate- Robert Byrd
Secretary of State- Colin Powell
Secretary of the Treasury- Paul O'Neill
Secretary of Defense- Donald H. Rumsfeld
Attorney General- John Ashcroft
Secretary of the Interior- Gale A. Norton
Secretary of Agriculture- Ann M. Veneman
Secretary of Commerce- Donald Evans
Secretary of Labor- Elaine Chao
Secretary of Health and Human Services- Tommy G. Thompson
Secretary of Housing and Urban- Development Melquiades Rafael Martinez
Secretary of Transportation- Norman Yoshiro Mineta
Secretary of Energy- Spencer Abraham
Secretary of Education- Roderick Paige
Secretary of Veterans Affairs- Anthony J. Principi

The Presidential Succession Act of 1947, signed by President Harry Truman, changed the order to what it is today. The cabinet members are ordered in the line of succession according to the date their offices were established.

Thus, Secretary of Homeland Security would be at the end of the list, after the Sect. of Veteran Affairs.

NC

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