Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Defense
Signed March 1, 2010·Barack Obama·75 FR 10163
Source
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Plain-language summary
Sets an order of succession within the Department of Defense, listing 19 tiers of officials, beginning with the Deputy Secretary of Defense and continuing through the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, various Under Secretaries, and other officials, who would act as Secretary of Defense if the Secretary dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to serve. It specifies that when multiple officials share the same tier, precedence goes to whoever was appointed or sworn in earliest. It excludes officials serving only in an acting capacity and requires that anyone acting as Secretary have been appointed by the President with Senate confirmation and be eligible under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. It preserves the President's discretion to depart from this order when naming an acting Secretary, revokes Executive Order 13394, and states that it creates no legally enforceable rights for outside parties.
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, as amended, 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 13394, December 22, 2005; Revoked by: EO 13963, December 10, 2020
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 13533 of March 1, 2010
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, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et seq., it is hereby
ordered that:
Section 1. Order of Succession.
(a) Subject to the provisions of section 2 of this
order, the following officials of the Department of
Defense, 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 in which the
Secretary has died, resigned, or otherwise become
unable to perform the functions and duties of the
office of the Secretary, until such time as the
Secretary is able to perform the functions and duties
of that office:
(1) Deputy Secretary of Defense;
(2) Secretary of the Army;
(3) Secretary of the Navy;
(4) Secretary of the Air Force;
(5) Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics;
(6) Under Secretary of Defense for Policy;
(7) Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller);
(8) Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness;
(9) Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence;
(10) Deputy Chief Management Officer, Department of Defense;
(11) Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition,
Technology, and Logistics;
(12) Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy;
(13) Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller);
(14) Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness;
(15) Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence;
(16) Director of Defense Research and Engineering;
(17) General Counsel of the Department of Defense, the Assistant
Secretaries of Defense, the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for
Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, the Director of
Operational Test and Evaluation, the Director of Operational Energy Plans
and Programs, and the Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation;
(18) Under Secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force; and
(19) Assistant Secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, and
General Counsels of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.
(b) Precedence among officers designated within the
same paragraph of subsection (a) shall be determined by
the order in which they have been appointed to such
office. Where officers designated within the same
paragraph of subsection (a) have the same appointment
date, precedence shall
be determined by the order in which they have taken the
oath to serve in that office.
Sec. 2. Exceptions.
(a) No individual who is serving in an office
listed in section 1 in an acting capacity, by virtue of
so serving, shall act as Secretary pursuant to this
order.
(b) No individual listed in section 1 shall act as
Secretary unless that individual was appointed by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, and that individual is otherwise eligible to so
serve under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998,
as amended.
(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. 3. Revocation. Executive Order 13394 of December
22, 2005 (Providing An Order of Succession Within the
Department of Defense), is hereby revoked.
Sec. 4. Judicial Review. This order 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, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 1, 2010.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed March 1, 2010. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.