Energy Secretary Chu designated as survivor for State of the Union

Energy Secretary Stephen Chu will be the Cabinet member not in attendance at Tuesday night's State of the Union, according to a White House official.

The designated successor is customarily placed at a undisclosed location during meetings of the president and the nation's other top leaders, so the country would have a leader in the event of a catastrophic disaster. The survivor is traditionally given Secret Service protection during the duration of the event.

In the presidential line of succession, the Energy secretary is twelfth, ranking just behind the secretaries of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Because of existing vacancies at Treasury, Commerce, and Labor, Chu is actually ninth in line.

Designated successors are required to be natural-born citizens, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for at least 14 years — the constitutional requirements to become president. Because of these requirements, officials are occasionally skipped — like former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who immigrated from Czechoslovakia. In 2012, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was the Cabinet's designated survivor.

Chu, a Nobel-prize winning physicist, announced earlier this month he was stepping down from the administration, although is expected to remain at least through the end of the month.

At the time, Chu said in a statement he was eager to return to California and "an academic life of teaching and research."

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