WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will be serving as the "designated survivor" for President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address.
The "designated survivor" tradition dates back to the Cold War, according to the Constitution Center. It typically calls for a member of the president's cabinet to be absent from the State of the Union, inaugurations and presidential speeches to joint sessions of Congress in case a catastrophic disaster strikes the U.S. Capitol.
Last year during Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress, there was no designated survivor because most of the cabinet did not attend the speech in person, due to COVID-19 safety protocols.
The joint session is designated as a “national special security event,” which clears the way for communication, funding and preparation between multiple agencies in Washington, including the Capitol Police, Pentagon, Homeland Security and District-area police. Other such events are the State of the Union, the Super Bowl and the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.
While there wasn't an official designated survivor last year, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would have wound up being the de facto designated survivor as the next person in the line of succession who wasn't attending the speech.
Why is this Biden's first State of the Union?
One stated belief is because when the president addresses Congress the first time in the weeks after being sworn in, they haven't been in charge long enough to announce what the "State of the Union" is. But that's not the case, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The idea of not calling the first address the State of the Union is a relatively new practice in American history.
"The past seven Presidents have chosen not to give an official State of the Union address the year they were first inaugurated, having just previously delivered an inaugural address," the CRS said. "In each instance their first speech to a joint session of Congress closely followed their inauguration, but was not officially categorized as a 'State of the Union Message.'"
