Who is 3rd in line after the president

Secretary of Defense 4. Attorney General 5. Secretary of the Interior 6. Secretary of Agriculture 7. Secretary of Commerce 8. Secretary of Labor 9. Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Secretary of Transportation Secretary of Energy Secretary of Education Secretary of Veterans Affairs Secretary of Homeland Security. The 20th Amendment provides that the vice president-elect becomes president if the president-elect dies before his term starts but after the Electoral College has met.

The 25th Amendment allows the vice president to serve as acting president temporarily in the case that the president is ill or otherwise temporarily unable to fulfill his or her official duties. Bush served as president for eight hours while President Ronald Reagan had surgery. Proponents of the act thought cabinet officers had better experience to serve as president.

Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act of , changing the line of succession to vice president, then speaker of the House, then Senate president pro tempore. Federalist senators objected because they had no desire to see Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, leader of the growing Antifederalist opposition, placed so close to the presidency. Others proposed the Senate's president pro tempore, reasoning that as this official succeeded the vice president in presiding over the Senate, he should also succeed the vice president in performing the duties of the presidency.

This plan attracted opposition from those who assumed the president pro tempore would remain a senator while temporarily performing duties of the presidency and feared the arrangement would upset the balance of powers between the two branches. Others suggested the chief justice of the United States or the Speaker of the House of Representatives. At an impasse, Congress adjourned for nine months, thereby risking governmental paralysis in the event of presidential and vice-presidential vacancies.

Early in the Second Congress, on February 20, , the Senate joined the House in passing the Presidential Succession Act—a compromise measure that placed in the line of succession its president pro tempore, followed by the House Speaker.