Acting President of The United States - Term of Service

Term of Service

An acting president serves until:

• The President transmits "his written declaration" to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate, declaring that his period of incapacity has ended, if the incapacity was declared under section 3 of the 25th Amendment (self declared incapacity); or,
• when the President transmits his written declaration to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate declaring that he is able to resume the powers and duties of his office and four days elapse without the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet restating their declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, if the incapacity was declared under section 4 of the 25th Amendment (action by Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet).
• twenty-one days elapse after the receipt, under section 4 of the 25th Amendment, of the declaration of the Vice President and Cabinet, declaring, within four days of the President having declared that he was able to resume the powers and duties of his office, that they still believe that the President is unable to discharge those powers and duties, but only if Congress does not, within that period of twenty one days, determine, by a two thirds vote in both Houses, that the President is indeed incapable of exercising his powers and duties.
• The death, resignation (it is not clear, however, if an incapacitated President would still be able to resign the office after his incapacity had been declared) or removal of the President. In this case a Vice President acting as President would succeed to the office. Any other officer acting as President, however, would (per the terms of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947) serve out the remainder of the Presidential term as acting president, instead of becoming President.
• A President-elect or Vice President-elect qualifying to hold the office, in a case in which the Presidential Succession Act has entered into operation due to the failure of both a President-elect and a Vice President-elect to qualify.
• A person mentioned in subsections (a) or (b) of 3 U.S.C. § 19 (the codification of the Presidential Succession Act of 1947) -- that is, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives or President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate—becoming able to act as President, when those powers and duties are being exercised by a member of the Cabinet under subsection (d) in virtue of there being no Speaker or President pro tempore able to act upon the entry into operation of the provisions of the statute. In this case, however, an acting president would be merely replaced by another acting president, placed higher in the order of Succession.
• At the expiration of the term for which the elected President was chosen, whereupon the President-elect would take office.