What is a Designated Survivor?

@simrin - I do not know if there is a requirement in age as far as cabinet posts goes, but if there is not I would assume that they would simply pass it on to the next person.

I know for sure that the President and Vice-President are required by law to be at least thirty five years of age to even take office so this portion of the line of succession is covered.

However, It is possible for the Senate Pro-Tempore to be less than thirty five years old, but this is highly unlikely due to the tradition of the position going to the most senior member of the controlling party of the Senate.

I think that there is probably a law that requires heads of cabinet posts to be a certain age but if there are not I am sure they have it covered with some by law.

What happens if the designated survivor was not born in the US or if he or she is not over 35 years old?

Someone who does not fit these qualifications cannot act as president so are cabinet officers who don't have these qualifications disqualified to be a designated survivor? Or is there an exception made for them in the event of a catastrophe?

As far as I know, "designed survivor" is also used to refer to people who survive after the death of a family member and who is given a pension because of it.

Military personnel and some other kinds of employees have a designated beneficiary who will receive a pension from the government if that person is killed while on duty. It's a way to make sure that family members of a serviceman or woman will be cared for after their death.

This is a great idea, I don't think it exists in many other countries. I hope such a circumstance never arises where the designated survivor needs to take over as President, but it's still a good idea to be prepared for the worst.

I don't remember which country, but didn't many of the statesmen, including the President of a European country die recently in a plane crash? I remember the country was in turmoil for several days because they had no idea who would take over.

I'm glad we already have a system in place to make sure that the Office of the President and decision makers in Congress are never left empty. Leadership is more necessary during a national security crisis than at any other time.

@Kat919 - I like Alas, Babylon, too, but of course that was a little bit of a different situation; the wasn't a designated survivor because the attack had happened without warning. She was just the only one who happened to survive.

I was a big fan of the TV show The West Wing and I remember a great little scene where President Bartlett is talking to the designated survivor, the gy who's going to spend the event sitting in a secure bunker. I think it was before the State of the Union address or something like that. He was giving this poor Secretary of Energy or Transportation or whatever a crash course in being president and what to do if the entire rest of the government was wiped out.

The line I remember is he says, "Do you have a best friend? Is he smarter than you? That's your Chief of Staff." It's just funny how seriously President Bartlett takes the whole thing!

I didn't realize that a senator and representative were also often sequestered! I guess that makes sense because a president by himself isn't much good. I'm not sure I understand how that really works, though, because the Speaker of the House and president pro tem are positions elected by the House and Senate, not appointed.

This is one of those ideas that make for good fiction. I can think of two different works that both involve a low-ranking Cabinet officer becoming president. (After all, they're all in the line of succession, unless they happen to be foreign-born or too young to be president. I guess Madeline Albright, for instance, was never the designated survivor.) I'm thinking of the novel Alas, Babylon, which a lot of high schools teach, and the remade TV series Battlestar Galactica. In both cases, the new president was a woman who had been the Secretary of Education.