Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Defense
Signed December 22, 2005·George W. Bush·70 FR 76665
Source
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Plain-language summary
Establishes the order in which officials within the Department of Defense will act as Secretary of Defense if the Secretary dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to serve. The line of succession runs from the Deputy Secretary of Defense through a series of under secretaries, service secretaries, deputy under secretaries, the General Counsel, and various assistant secretaries and general counsels of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Officials serving in an office only in an acting capacity are excluded from acting as Secretary, and precedence among officials at the same level is determined by appointment date or, if tied, by the date they took their oath of office. The President retains discretion to depart from this order when designating an acting Secretary. The order states it creates no enforceable legal rights, and it revokes Executive Order 13000 of April 24, 1996, along with a June 2, 2005 presidential memorandum on the same subject.
Not written or reviewed by a person. Read the full order below for anything you intend to rely on.
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Legal standing
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Claimed authority
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et. seq., it is hereby ordered
Quoted from the order as written. Many orders cite nothing more specific than “the Constitution and the laws”; this reproduces what the order claims, not an assessment of whether it holds.
Disposition
Revoked by: EO 13533, March 1, 2010 Revokes: EO 13000, April 24, 1996; Memorandum of June 2, 2005
Compiled after the fact by the National Archives, so recent orders often have none yet. An empty disposition means no record, not no activity.
The order, in full
Executive Order 13394 of December 22, 2005
Providing an Order of Succession Within the
Department of Defense
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, including the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of
1998, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et. seq., it is hereby ordered as
follows:
Section 1. Subject to the provisions of section 3 of
this order, the officers named in section 2, in the
order listed, shall act as and perform the functions
and duties of the office of the Secretary of Defense
(Secretary) during any period when the Secretary has
died, resigned, or is otherwise unable to perform the
functions and duties of the office of Secretary.
Sec. 2. Order of Succession.
(a) Deputy Secretary of Defense;
(b) Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence;
(c) Under Secretary of Defense for Policy;
(d) Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition,
Technology, and Logistics;
(e) Secretary of the Army;
(f) Secretary of the Air Force;
(g) Secretary of the Navy;
(h) Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness and the Under Secretary of Defense
(Comptroller);
(i) Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition and Technology, Deputy Under Secretary of
Defense for Policy, and Deputy Under Secretary of
Defense for Personnel and Readiness;
(j) General Counsel of the Department of Defense,
the Assistant Secretaries of Defense, and the Director
of Operational Test and Evaluation;
(k) Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Logistics
and Material Readiness and the Director of Defense
Research and Engineering;
(l) Under Secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and
the Air Force; and
(m) Assistant Secretaries of the Army, the Navy,
and the Air Force, and General Counsels of the Army,
the Navy, and the Air Force.
Sec. 3. Exceptions. (a) No individual who is serving in
an office listed in section 2(a)-(m) in an acting
capacity shall act as Secretary pursuant to this order.
(b) Precedence among officers designated within the
same subsection of section 2 of this order shall be
determined by the order in which they have been
appointed to such office by the President. Where
officers designated within the same subsection of
section 2 of this order are appointed on the same date,
precedence will be determined by the order in which
they have taken the oath to serve in that office.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of this order,
the President retains discretion, to the extent
permitted by law, to depart from this order in
designating an acting Secretary.
Sec. 4. Judicial Review. This order is intended to
improve the internal management of the executive branch
and is not intended to, and does
not, create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, entities, officers, employees or agents, or
any other person.
Sec. 5. Revocation. Executive Order No. 13000 of April
24, 1996, and the President's memorandum of June 2,
2005, entitled: “Order of Succession of Officers to
Act as Secretary of Defense,” are hereby revoked.
(Presidential Sig.)B
THE WHITE HOUSE,
December 22, 2005.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed December 22, 2005. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.