It says the vice president and a majority of principal officers of the executive departments “or of such other body as Congress” may by law provide a declaration to Congress that the president “is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”.
At that point, the vice president would immediately assume the powers of acting president.
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Trump abruptly halted talks this week on the new coronavirus aid package, sending the economy reeling, his GOP allies scrambling and leaving millions of Americans without additional support. Then he immediately reversed course and tried to kickstart talks.
It all came in a head-spinning series of tweets and comments days after he returned to the White House after his hospitalization with Covid-19.
First, President Donald Trump told the Republican leaders in Congress on Tuesday to quit negotiating on an aid package.
By Wednesday he was trying to bring everyone back to the table for his priority items — including $1,200 stimulus checks for almost all adult Americans.
Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Democrats are “still at the table" and her office resumed conversations with top negotiator Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Pelosi said she told Mnuchin she was willing to consider a measure to prop up the airline industry, which is facing widespread layoffs.
But that aid, she said, must go alongside broader legislation that includes the kind of Covid testing, tracing and health practices that Democrats say are needed as part of a national strategy to “crush the virus”.