World
Labor secretary ‘designated survivor’ for Biden speech
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh was chosen to be the so-called designated survivor during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday.
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That role announced by the White House means that Walsh would be the person to take charge if the entire US cabinet were wiped out all together in some kind of catastrophe during the address.
Under this tradition dating back to the Cold War, one member of the cabinet stays away from the Capitol during the president’s annual speech to a joint session of Congress and the nation.
The idea is to have a senior official still alive in the event that a disaster killed the top US leadership — the president, vice president, members of the cabinet, leaders of Congress, all of them gathered in the same place to hear the speech.
Walsh was chosen as US news outlets reported that he will soon be leaving the government.
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