Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Health and Human Services
Signed February 15, 2008·George W. Bush·73 FR 9437
Source
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Plain-language summary
Establishes an order of succession within the Department of Health and Human Services, listing officials who may act as Secretary if the Secretary dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to serve. The sequence runs from the Deputy Secretary through the General Counsel, several Assistant Secretaries, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, other presidentially appointed Assistant Secretaries in order of seniority, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Director of Region 4. It specifies that an official serving in an acting capacity in one of these positions cannot become acting Secretary under this order, and that the President retains discretion to depart from the listed order under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. It revokes Executive Order 13250 and a related 2002 presidential memorandum on succession within the department.
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
Revokes: EO 13250, December 28, 2001; Memorandum of March 19, 2002
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 13461 of February 15, 2008
Providing an Order of Succession Within the
Department of Health and Human Services
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 that:
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 Health and
Human Services (Secretary), if they are eligible to act
as Secretary under the provisions of the Federal
Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, during any period in
which the Secretary has died, resigned, or become
otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of
the office of Secretary.
Sec. 2. Order of Succession.
(a) Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services;
(b) General Counsel of the Department of Health and
Human Services;
(c) Assistant Secretary (Resources and Technology);
(d) Assistant Secretary (Planning and Evaluation);
(e) Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services;
(f) Commissioner of Food and Drugs;
(g) Director of the National Institutes of Health;
(h) Assistant Secretary for Family Support;
(i) Other Assistant Secretaries of the Department of
Health and Human Services appointed by the President,
in the order in which they shall have taken the oath of
office as such;
(j) Director, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention; and
(k) Director, Region 4.
Sec. 3. Exceptions.
(a) No individual who is serving in an office listed in
section 2 of this order in an acting capacity, by
virtue of so serving, shall act as Secretary pursuant
to this order.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of this order, the
President retains discretion, consistent with the
Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, to depart from
this order in designating an acting Secretary.
Sec. 4. Revocation. Executive Order 13250 of December
28, 2001 (Providing An Order of Succession Within the
Department of Health and Human Services), and the
President's memorandum of March 19, 2002 (Designation
of Officers of the Department of Health and Human
Services), are hereby revoked.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 15, 2008.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed February 15, 2008. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.