The Obama administration named transportation secretary Anthony Foxx its designated survivor of the 2015 State of the Union address, continuing the yearly tradition that forces one cabinet member to sit out the marathon speech.
The ritual of “designated survivor” is no pejorative comment about the president’s rhetorical skills by way of a single minister spared the speech, but rather a failsafe designed to guard against an almost unthinkable catastrophe striking the Capitol – and the collected branches of the US government with it. With the entirety of Congress, much of the supreme court and most of the White House in attendance, each year security secrets away the designated survivor to a safe location.
This year, Foxx has been chosen as the official who would assume the presidency and lead the US through disaster should the entire line of succession be somehow wiped out. The practice originated during the 1960s, when a nuclear nightmare seemed a very real possibility during the cold war and the government prepared accordingly.
Foxx, who was formerly the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, and was appointed transportation secretary in 2013, will be guarded by a full secret service unit for the night. The designated survivor must be an eligible candidate for president – US-born and older than 35.
For years the designated survivor has been a relatively “minor” cabinet member, such as the secretary of energy, agriculture or transportation. Secretaries of state or defense have never been chosen, and the selected secretary is not told of the contingency plan until almost the last moment. Designated survivors have even been ferreted out of the country during the speech, as was John Block during Ronald Reagan’s 1986 address. Most recently, secretaries of energy Steven Chu and Ernest Moniz were designated survivors.
