Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

"Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office."

The Amendment specifically outlines the procedures for:

• the process of filling the office of Vice President, should it become unexpectedly vacant.
• the process for establishing an Acting President, who has the authority to temporarily discharge the full duties of the presidency, during a temporary period of inability of the real president to do the same.

The Twenty-fifth Amendment has been evoked four times since its creation.

• To appoint Senator Gerald Ford as Vice President following Spiro Agnew's resignation.
• to appoint Governor Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President following Vice President Ford's ascension to the presidency.
• to make Vice President George H. W. Bush Acting President during President Ronald Reagan's surgery to remove cancerous polyps.
• to make Vice President Dick Cheney Acting President during President George W. Bush's colonoscopy[?].

see also: Presidential_line_of_succession