The order of Presidential succession has always interested me; everyone knows that the Vice President is only a proverbial heartbeat away, and that the Speaker of The House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate are next. But after that, it falls to cabinet secretaries. With the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security, I had wondered several times if the DHS chief would automatically be last in line among his peers, and it appears that was correct. That didn’t quite sit right with me…

I mean, no offense to the Secretary of Agriculture, for instance, but it would just seem weird if the Agri Chief became President instead of the DHS chief. After all, if there was some kind of national emergency that claimed the life of the President, the Vice President, the Speaker of The House, the President Pro Temp of the Senate, and several cabinet secretaries until finally the Agriculture Secretary was installed — well, I would wager that any such catastrophic situation would probably better be handled by the person in charge of Homeland Security, not the person in charge of grain inspection and herb gardens.

So now, it looks like Congress has done something about the order of succession (almost - House needs to take action). Here is the proposed new order of succession: State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce_Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development , Transportation, Energy, Education, and Veterans Affairs. The only change I would make: put Treasury after Homeland Security.