<P> Acting officers may be eligible . In 2009, the Continuity of Government Commission, a private non-partisan think tank, reported, </P> <P> The language in the current Presidential Succession Act is less clear than that of the 1886 Act with respect to Senate confirmation . The 1886 Act refers to "such officers as shall have been appointed by the advice and consent of the Senate to the office therein named ..." The current act merely refers to "officers appointed, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate ." Read literally, this means that the current act allows for acting secretaries to be in the line of succession as long as they are confirmed by the Senate for a post (even for example, the second or third in command within a department). It is common for a second in command to become acting secretary when the secretary leaves office . Though there is some dispute over this provision, the language clearly permits acting secretaries to be placed in the line of succession . (We have spoken to acting secretaries who told us they had been placed in the line of succession .) </P> <P> Two months after succeeding Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Harry S. Truman proposed that the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate be granted priority in the line of succession over the Cabinet so as to ensure the president would not be able to appoint his successor to the presidency . </P> <P> The Secretary of State and the other Cabinet officials are appointed by the president, while the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate are elected officials . The Speaker is chosen by the U.S. House of Representatives, and every Speaker has been a member of that body for the duration of their term as Speaker, though this is not technically a requirement; the President pro tempore is chosen by the U.S. Senate and customarily the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service fills this position . The Congress approved this change and inserted the Speaker and President pro tempore in line, ahead of the members of the Cabinet in the order in which their positions were established . </P>

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