Providing an Order of Succession Within the Department of Agriculture
Signed May 13, 2010·Barack Obama·75 FR 27921
Source
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Plain-language summary
Establishes an order of succession within the Department of Agriculture, listing officials—including the Assistant Secretary for Administration, various Under Secretaries, the General Counsel, the Chief of Staff, and other named positions—who would act as Secretary of Agriculture if both the Secretary and Deputy Secretary are unable to serve, until either can resume duties. It sets tie-breaking rules based on seniority or state alphabetical order for certain regional and state officials. It specifies that officials serving in an acting capacity cannot claim succession rights under this order, and that eligibility must also meet requirements of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. The President retains discretion to depart from this order when naming an acting Secretary. It revokes the prior succession order, Executive Order 13241, and states that it creates no enforceable legal rights for any party.
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 13241, December 18, 2001
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 13542 of May 13, 2010
Providing an Order of Succession Within the
Department of Agriculture
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. Order of Succession. (a) Subject to the
provisions of section 2 of this order, the following
officials of the Department of Agriculture, in the
order listed, shall act as and perform the functions
and duties of the office of Secretary of Agriculture
(Secretary) during any period in which both the
Secretary and the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
(Deputy Secretary) have died, resigned, or are
otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of
the office of Secretary, until such time as the
Secretary or Deputy Secretary is able to perform the
functions and duties of that office:
(1) Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Administration;
(2) Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs;
(3) Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer
Services;
(4) Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety;
(5) Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment;
(6) Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural
Services;
(7) Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development;
(8) Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics;
(9) General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture;
(10) Chief of Staff, Office of the Secretary;
(11) Director, Kansas City Commodity Office, Farm Service Agency;
(12) State Executive Directors of the Farm Service Agency for the States of
California, Iowa, and Kansas, in order of seniority fixed by length of
unbroken service as State Executive Director of that State;
(13) Regional Administrators of the Food and Nutrition Service for the
Mountain Plains Regional Office (Denver, Colorado), Midwest Regional Office
(Chicago, Illinois), and Western Regional Office (San Francisco,
California), in order of seniority fixed by length of unbroken service as
Regional Administrator of that Regional Office;
(14) Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Agriculture;
(15) Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights; and
(16) Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Congressional Relations.
(b) If any two or more individuals designated in
paragraphs (12) and (13) of subsection (a) were sworn
in to, or commenced service in, their respective
offices on the same day, precedence shall be determined
by the alphabetical order of the State in which the
individual serves.
Sec. 2. Exceptions. (a) No individual who is serving in
an office listed in section 1 in an acting capacity
shall, by virtue of so serving, act as Secretary
pursuant to this order.
(b) No individual who is serving in an office
listed in section 1 shall act as Secretary unless that
individual is otherwise eligible to so serve under the
Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998.
(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. Executive Order 13241 of December 18, 2001, as
amended, is hereby revoked.
Sec. 4. 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,
May 13, 2010.Reproduced from the Federal Register plain-text record, signed May 13, 2010. Typesetting artifacts are removed; no wording is changed.