Citing 25th Amendment, Pelosi, Raskin move to create panel that could rule on president’s fitness for office

By Felicia Sonmez
10/8/2020, 5:17:16 p.m.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) plan to introduce legislation Friday that would create a commission to “help ensure effective and uninterrupted leadership” in the presidency.

The panel would be called the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of Office, “the body and process called for in the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” the offices of Pelosi and Raskin said in a statement announcing the move.

The 25th Amendment formalizes that the vice president takes over the duties of the presidency in the event of a president’s death, inability to perform his duties or resignation from office. It also lays out a process by which a sitting president may be removed from office. Congress’s role in this, however, is limited.

President Trump’s four-day hospitalization at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after contracting the novel coronavirus forced the administration to answer questions about the 25th Amendment and succession.

-snip-