Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins will be the designated survivor for President Donald Trump‘s highly anticipated speech to a joint session of Congress.
Collins, a former congressman for Georgia and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, was confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet on Feb. 5, adding the responsibilities of acting director of the United States Office of Government Ethics the following week.
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The White House did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
Each year, someone in the presidential line of succession is chosen to not attend the speech inside the Capitol building in case of a catastrophic event.
The designated survivor tradition dates to the 1950s and the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear warfare was a constant threat across the U.S. A Cabinet member is often chosen for the survivor role as they are in the line of succession following the vice president, speaker of the House, and president pro tempore of the Senate.
In addition to the joint session of Congress, designated survivors are named for State of the Union speeches and for presidential inaugurations, though no one was chosen for Trump’s recent second inauguration.
They typically watch the speech in a remote location far from the U.S. Capitol dome.
The phrase also inspired the TV show “Designated Survivor,” which ran on ABC and Netflix from 2016 through 2019. In the show, a Housing and Urban Development Secretary, played by Kiefer Sutherland, suddenly becomes president due to an explosion during the State of the Union speech.
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Congress also designates members of the House and Senate from each party to play a designated survivor role in order to keep the legislature alive in the case of a catastrophic event.
Previous designated survivors have included former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, former Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and former Texas Governor Rick Perry.