1ST FEMALE ACTING PRESIDENT OF USA: KAMALA HARRIS
US Vice-President Kamala Harris on November 19, 2021, became the first female acting President of the United States for one hour and 25 minutes when US President Joe Biden temporarily transferred power to Harris while he went under anesthesia for a routine colonoscopy. With this development, 57-years-old Kamala Harris is now the first woman ever who held presidential powers in the 250-years-old history of the US. Kamala Harris is the first woman, first African-American and first Asian-American, first Indian-American who holds the second-most powerful position in the US. Harris was elected US Vice-President on November 7, 2020, after Joe Biden was declared the President of the United States in the US Presidential Elections 2020.
KAMALA HARRIS: 1ST WOMAN WITH PRESIDENTIAL POWERS
US President Joe Biden, on November 19, 2021, underwent his first routine annual physical checkup at Walter Reed Medical Center since taking office. Following this, it is a protocol for a Vice-President to assume Presidential powers while the President undergoes a medical procedure that requires sedation or anesthesia.
What is the procedure to transfer Presidential Powers to Vice-President in the US?
Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution says the President can send a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro tempore of the Senate declaring they are "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President." As per Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, US President Joe Biden wrote a letter to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont (who is the president pro tempore of the Senate) for the official transfer of the Presidential Powers to US Vice-President Kamala Harris before he underwent the routine checkup. The 25th Amendment of the US Constitution comprises the procedure through which a President or Vice-President of the US can be replaced in the event of death, resignation, removal or incapacitation. The 25th Amendment was enacted following the death of former US President John F Kennedy who was assassinated.
How did US President Joe Biden get back his Presidential Powers?
After the completion of the routine checkup, US President Joe Biden wrote a separate letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont in accordance with Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to transfer the Presidential Powers back to him. US President Biden has been declared fit to successfully execute his duties of the President, wrote the President’s medical examiner Kevin O’Connor.
PAST INSTANCES OF TRANSFER OF PRESIDENTIAL POWERS
In the past, US presidents have transferred Presidential Powers while they underwent routine medical checkups which include a colonoscopy that may require sedation or anesthesia. Former US President George W Bush had undergone the routine colonoscopy twice (2002 and 2007) during which he transferred his Presidential Powers to then Vice-President Dick Cheney for a couple of hours. Former US President Donald Trump has been an exception who did not undergo sedation or anesthesia during his routine colonoscopy in 2019 and hence did not transfer his Presidential Powers to then Vice-President Mike Pence.
ABOUT KAMALA HARRIS
Kamala Harris is the 49th Vice-President of the United States alongside 46th President Joe Biden. She is the United States' first female Vice-President-- the highest-ranking female elected official in the USA history, and the first African American and first Asian American Vice-President. For the first time in the history of the US, Joe Biden chose the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent as his running mate. With this historic decision, Kamala Haris become the first Asian-American woman to compete on a major U.S. party's presidential ticket.
Kamala Harris was born to Shyamala Gopalan Harris and Donald Harris. Her mother was an Indian and was a cancer researcher while her father was Jamaican and was a professor at Stanford University. Her parents separated when Kamala and her sister Maya Harris were young. Shyamala Gopalan Harris gave her daughters Sanskrit names to connect their heritage with their identities. Kamala Harris is the first Asian-American to run as a vice presidential candidate. She is also the first African-American of a major party and third woman to compete on a major U.S. party's presidential ticket after Democrat Geraldine Ferraro and Republican Sarah Palin. In 2019, she became the first Indian-American woman to run for US President so far. She has also served as a district attorney in San Francisco. In 2017, she was the first South Asian-American senator and the second African-American woman who sworn in as a US Senator from California. Kamala Harris served on various posts-- the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget. Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964, to Indian and Jamaican parents (Shyamala Gopalan and Donald J. Harris) in Oakland, California. She double-majored in Political Science and Economics from Howard University. She has a law degree from the University of California, Hastings. In 2003, she became the district attorney of San Francisco.
INDIAN PROVISIONS IN CASE OF PRESIDENT’S INCAPACITY
Article 65 of the Indian constitution says that the Vice-President of India will have to discharge the duties, if the office falls vacant due to any reason other than the expiry of the term such as by the reason of his death, resignation, removal by Supreme Court or through the process of Impeachment. Vice-president reverts to their office when a new president is elected and enters office. When the president is unable to act because of absence, illness or any other cause, the vice-president discharges the president's functions until the president resumes the duties.
The Indian parliament has enacted the law—The President (Discharge of Functions) Act, 1969
for the discharge of the functions of the president when vacancies occur in the offices of the president and of the vice-president simultaneously, owing to removal, death, resignation of the incumbent or otherwise. In such an eventuality, the chief justice—or in his absence, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court of India available—discharges the functions of the president until a newly elected president enters upon his office.
TEST YOURSELF
Q.1 Recently, which of the following female leaders of the US has become the first women acting president of the United States of America?
- Kamala Harris: ANSWER
- Hillary Clinton
- Nancy Pelosi
- None of the following
Q.2 The proposal of the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution is made in the aftermath of which President' assassination. What is the name of that US President?
- Franklin D.Roosevelt
- Ronald Reagan
- Richard Nixon
- John F. Kennedy : ANSWER
Q.3 The 25th Amendment to the US Constitution which owes to fill the vacancy of the President's office in case of contingency is adopted in which year 1965?
- 1967: ANSWER
- 1969
- 1971
- None of the following
Q.4 Which of the following article of the Indian Constitution says that the Vice-President of India will have to discharge the duties, if the office falls vacant due to any reason?
- Article 52
- Article 61
- Article 65: ANSWER
- Article 72
Q.5 Which of the following statements is true about the US presidential election 2020?
- An election of 2020 is the 57th Presidential Election in the US.
- Joe Biden was the 47th vice president in Barack Obama's administration: ANSWER
- Kamala Harris is the Republican's Candidate for the post of Vice President.
- None of the above
