[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 49 (Monday, December 15, 2008)]
[Pages 1508-1509]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Executive Order 13481--Providing an Order of Succession Within the 
Department of Justice

December 9, 2008

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and 
the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal 
Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, 5 U.S.C. 3345 et seq., it is hereby 
ordered that:

    Section 1.  Subject to the provisions of section 2 of this order, 
the following officers, in the order listed, shall act as and perform 
the functions and duties of the office of Attorney General, during any 
period in which the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the 
Associate Attorney General, and the officers designated by the Attorney 
General pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 508 to act as Attorney General have died, 
resigned, or otherwise become unable to perform the functions and duties 
of the office of Attorney General, until such time as at least one of 
the officers mentioned above is able to perform the functions and duties 
of that office:

    (a) United States Attorney for the District of Maryland;

    (b) United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama; and

    (c) United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

    Sec. 2. Exceptions. (a) No individual who is serving in an office 
listed in section 1 of this order in an acting capacity, by virtue of so 
serving, shall act as Attorney General pursuant to this order.

    (b) No individual listed in section 1 shall act as Attorney General 
unless that individual is otherwise eligible to so serve under the 
Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998.

    (c) Notwithstanding the provisions of this order, the President 
retains discretion, to the extent permitted by law, to depart from this 
order in designating an acting Attorney General.

[[Page 1509]]

    Sec. 3. This order supersedes the President's Memorandum for the 
Attorney General of December 8, 2006 (Designation of Officers of the 
Department of Justice).
    Sec. 4. This order is intended to improve the internal management of 
the executive branch and is not intended to, and does not, create any 
right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in 
equity, by any party against the United States, its agencies, 
instrumentalities, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or 
any other person.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 December 9, 2008.

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 2 p.m., December 10, 
2008]

Note: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on 
December 11.