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Authorship and ratification The amendment was proposed in Congress on January 6, 1965 (Senate version, drafted by Sen. Birch Bayh) and July 6, 1965 (House version, proposed by Rep. Emanuel Celler). Hearings were held through February 19, when the Senate passed the amendment (then known as "Senate Joint Resolution 1") by a unanimous, 72-0 vote. The House passed a modified form of the amendment on April 13 by a 368-29 margin, and after a conference committee ironed out differences between the versions, on July 6, 1965 the final version of the amendment was passed by the Senate and presented to the states for ratification. Just six days after its submission, Wisconsin (by an 84-11 margin in the House and 28-0 in the state Senate) and Nebraska were the first states to ratify the amendment. On February 10, 1967, Minnesota and Nevada were the 37th and 38th states to ratify, and in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, General Services Administrator Lawson Knott certified that the amendment was part of the United States Constitution on February 23, 1967. Text of the Amendment
Section one: Presidential vacancy As originally ratified, Article II, section 1, clause 6 of the United States Constitution stated that if the office of President became vacant, or the president became unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office, "the Same shall devolve upon the Vice President." This language was ambiguous: in the case of vacancy, did the "office" devolve on the Vice President (i.e. he became president), or did the "powers and duties of the office" devolve on him (i.e. he would merely act as President)? While this question was answered by precedent when John Tyler succeeded to the office upon William Henry Harrison's death in 1841, there still remained doubts. Section 1 of the 25th amendment clarified the position: the Vice President becomes President if the presidency is vacated. Section two: Vice Presidential vacancy The Constitution did not provide for Vice Presidential vacancies until the 25th amendment was ratified — an omission that had been debated for over a century; the Vice Presidency was vacant due to death or resignation (or succession to the Presidency, per the John Tyler precedent) several times, often for years. Under the 25th amendment, whenever there is a vacancy in the office of Vice President of the United States, the President nominates a successor, who is confirmed by the majority vote of both houses of Congress. The 25th amendment is supplemented by the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, which establishes a line of succession to the powers and duties of the Presidency. Should neither the President nor Vice President be able to serve, the line of succession details what government official shall then act as President. Sections three and four: Presidential Disability The question of how a Presidential inability was to be ascertained was resolved by the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Abraham Lincoln lay unconscious for several hours after he was shot until he died; James Garfield was incapacitated for eighty days before dying from an assassin's bullet; a stroke rendered Woodrow Wilson an invalid for the last eighteen months of his term; and Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in 1955 and a stroke in 1957, although in each case he was able to return to duty quickly. Section three: Voluntary withdrawal The Twenty-Fifth Amendment addressed the issue by providing that the President may, by transmitting to the President ''pro tempore'' of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration to the same effect, declare himself unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Until the President sends another written declaration to the aforementioned officers declaring himself able to resume office, the Vice President serves as Acting President. Section four: Involuntary withdrawal It is also possible for the Vice President, together with a majority of the heads of the executive departments (that is to say, members of Cabinet) or of such other body as Congress by law provides, to declare the President disabled. The provisions of section four have never been invoked. The President may resume his duties by a written declaration sent to the President pro tempore and the Speaker. If the Vice President and Cabinet, however, are still unsatisfied with the President's condition, they may within four days of the President's declaration submit another declaration that the President is incapacitated. Congress must decide within 21 days the issue; a two-thirds vote in each House is required to permit the Vice President to assume the Acting Presidency. Applications of the Amendment The 25th Amendment has been invoked five times since its ratification. Appointment of Vice President Gerald Ford (1973) Following Spiro Agnew's resignation two days earlier, President Richard Nixon nominated long-time Michigan congressman Gerald Ford to succeed Agnew as Vice President on October 12, 1973.* The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27, and on December 6 the House confirmed him 387 to 35. Ford was sworn in later that day at the United States Capitol. Succession of President Gerald Ford (1974) President Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. In accordance with section one, which formalized the Tyler precedent, Vice President Gerald Ford succeeded to the presidency. Appointment of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller (1974) By becoming President, Gerald Ford left the Vice Presidency vacant. After considering Melvin Laird and George H. W. Bush, on August 20, 1974, President Ford nominated former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him as Vice President. After a long and contentious investigation, particularly to ensure that his family's business dealings would not cause conflicts of interest, he was confirmed (287-128 by the House, 90-7 by the Senate). He was sworn into office on December 19, 1974. Acting President George H. W. Bush (1985) On July 12, 1985, President Ronald Reagan underwent a colonoscopy, during which a pre-cancerous lesion called a villous adenoma was discovered. Upon being told by his physician (Dr. Edward Cattow) that he could undergo surgery immediately or in two to three weeks, Reagan elected to have it removed immediately. That afternoon, Reagan consulted with White House counsel Fred Fielding by telephone, debating whether or not to invoke the 25th amendment and if so, whether such a transfer would set an undesirable precedent. Fielding and White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan both recommended that Reagan transfer power, and two letters doing so were drafted: the first specifically referencing Section 3 of the 25th amendment, the second not. At 10:32 a.m. on July 13, Reagan signed the second letter and ordered its delivery to the appropriate officers as required under the amendment. Due to some confusing language and Reagan's failure to specifically mention Section 3 of the amendment (see Reagan transfer of power letters) in his letter, some constitutional scholars have claimed that Reagan did not actually transfer his power to Bush. However, in books such as The President Has Been Shot: Confusion, Disability and the 25th Amendment, by Herbert Abrams, and Reagan's autobiography, An American Life, Reagan's intent to transfer power to Bush was clear. Fielding himself adds, "I personally know he did intend to invoke the amendment, and he conveyed that to all of his staff and it was conveyed to the VP as well as the President of the Senate. He was also very firm in his wish not to create a precedent binding his successor." Acting President Dick Cheney (2002) On the morning of June 29, 2002, President George W. Bush underwent a colonoscopy and chose to invoke the 25th amendment, temporarily transferring his powers to Vice President Cheney. Unlike Reagan's 1985 letter, Bush's letter specifically cited Section 3 of the 25th amendment in his letter transferring power. Considered Applications of the Amendment On two publicly known occasions (and possibly others that the public has not been made aware of), the possibility of invoking provisions of the 25th amendment, particularly Section 4, have been considered. 1981: Reagan Assassination Attempt Following the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan on March 31, 1981, a number of cabinet officials suggested that Vice President George H. W. Bush assume the role of Acting President under the provisions of Section 4 of the amendment. Bush, however, was opposed to the idea, in part because he didn't wish to be seen as leading a de facto coup d'état. Scholars of presidential history and the 25th amendment are nearly unanimous in their assessment that the scenario that unfolded during the Reagan assassination attempt is precisely the type the amendment was intended to address, and that Bush should have invoked Section 4's provisions and assumed executive authority. 1987: Reagan Incapacity Upon assuming the role of White House Chief of Staff in 1987, Howard Baker was advised by his predecessor's staff to be prepared for a possible invocation of the 25th amendment due to Reagan's perceived laziness and ineptitude. According to PBS's American Experience program recalling the Reagan administration (a transcript of which can be read by visiting *): "What Baker's transition team was told by Donald Regan's staff that weekend shocked them. Reagan was 'inattentive, inept,' and 'lazy,' and Baker should be prepared to invoke the 25th amendment to relieve him of his duties." Reagan biographer Edmund Morris stated in an interview aired on the program, "The incoming Baker people all decided to have a meeting with him on Monday, their first official meeting with the President, and to cluster around the table in the Cabinet room and watch him very, very closely to see how he behaved, to see if he was indeed losing his mental grip." Morris went on to explain "...Reagan who was, of course, completely unaware that they were launching a death watch on him, came in stimulated by the press of all these new people and performed splendidly. At the end of the meeting, they figuratively threw up their hands realizing he was in perfect command of himself." Earlier drafts of the Amendment The first draft of Senate Joint Resolution 1, the legislation that would ultimately be ratified as the 25th amendment, was preceded by two other attempts to pass a constitutional amendment regarding Presidential succession: Senate Joint Resolution 35 and Senate Joint Resolution 139: Senate Joint Resolution 35 (1963) Senate Joint Resolution 35 was proposed by Senator Kenneth Keating of New York, and received the recommendation of the American Bar Association. Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver (the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments), a long-time advocate for addressing the disability question, spearheaded the effort initially but died of a heart attack on August 10, 1963, in effect killing the amendment. Rather than to resolve the questions of presidential succession and disability however, the proposed amendment's text seemed only to solidify confusion on those topics. The text of the amendment read:
Senate Joint Resolution 139 (1963) Senate Joint Resolution 139 was proposed by Senators Bayh of Indiana (who had succeeded Kefauver as chair of the Constitutional Amendments subcommittee) and Long of Missouri. Where Senate Joint Resolution 35 had been seen by some as too vague in terms relating to presidential succession and disability, this legislation was seen as too constrictive by some, as it in essence aped the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. The text of the amendment read:
Joint Resolution 1 (1965) House Joint Resolution 1 was proposed by Representative Emanuel Celler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, on January 4, 1965, and Senate Joint Resolution 1 was proposed by Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana on January 6, 1965. These resolutions ultimately led to what became the 25th amendment. Original form of Joint Resolution 1 (both House and Senate versions) Sections 1 and 2 went unchanged throughout the amendment's passage through Congress, and consequently are not repeated. Sections 3, 4 and 5 in their original form read as follows:
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