I recently watched the trailer for Designated Survivor starring Kiefer Sutherland, and it got me wondering. Has designated ever been really important? I researched and saw that the first designated survivor was in 1981. Well, what changed to make us have a designated survivor, and what was the procedure before this?
Designated survivor in its current form is from 1947 and signed in by Truman. The last forms of the act were from 1792 and 1847. Nothing has really changed aside from added clauses. It is there to dictate the presidential line of succession (vice, speaker, etc)
The whole thing is a contingency plan in case the current president is incapacitated or otherwise deemed unfit and who in what order is going to be take the presidents place. Right now the bill serves as the modus operandi incase the POTUS and a majority of the US government is decapitated in something like a nuclear exchange or terrorist attack. Usually something that catastrophic occurs the continuity of government plans go into effect and the designated survivor is at the head.
Legal stuff: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/19
Cont. Of Govt.:https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/nspd-51.htm