Experts are expressing concerns as aging members of Congress could be in line for the presidency via a 1947 law giving the speaker of the house and Senate president pro tempore a place in the line, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
“Whether it is a [former late Sen.] Strom Thurmond, a Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. a Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, or any other octogenarian who might occupy the position, this is no way to run a succession process,” Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who has studied continuity of government for decades told the Post.
If Democrats retain the Senate in the midterm elections, Feinstein, 89, or Grassley, 89, should the Republicans take the Senate majority, would be third in line, behind Vice President Kamala Harris, 58, and then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is 82.
According to the Senate website, the 1947 law, signed by former President Harry S. Truman, added the Speaker and Senate president pro tempore back in the line after being removed in 1886.
The reasoning, according to the Senate, was that the two congressional slots were taken out in favor of Cabinet officials in 1886 because of the high mortality rate of the time which could mean both the president and vice president could die during a congressional recess and the Senate president pro tempore would not be available to become president in a timely manner.
The 1947 law reinstated the positions to the line because it was believed that having an elected, rather than appointed official would serve the nation better.
In the Post report, Feinstein issued a statement saying she had “no interest” in becoming president pro tempore if Democrats win the majority in the Senate.
“I’ve never thought about being the president pro tempore, and I have no interest in it at this time,” Feinstein said Friday in a statement provided to The Washington Post.
Grassley, on the other hand, told the Post through his office that he would take the position, becoming third in line for the presidency, but he also said he would leave succession discussions “to others.”
Some members of Congress see the large number of older members in leadership positions, and say the parties need younger members in those roles.
“We need a new generation,” the Post reported Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., saying recently on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” focusing mostly on her party. “We need new blood, period, across the Democratic Party, in the House, the Senate, and the White House.”
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