President Dwight Eisenhower's 1955 heart attack and subsequent health problems put the question of presidential disability and succession back in the minds of many, including two Senators who eventually got those questions answered:  Senators Estes Kefauver (top right) of Tennessee and Birch Bayh (middle right) of Indiana.

Kefauver, himself two-time Presidential candidate and the Democratic nominee in 1956, opened hearings before the Senate's subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments, presenting a proposal similar to the disability agreement between Eisenhower and Nixon, but containing modifications designed to quell concerns expressed by some members of Congress.  Specifically, the agreement had no means of settling a dispute between a President and Vice President over the state of the President's health.

The Kefauver Plan

The original Kefauver proposal, made in 1958, called for the Vice President and a majority of the members of the cabinet to present the issue before Congress, whereupon they'd decide the matter - a two-thirds vote of each house being necessary to declare the President incapable of resuming the office.  Though Kefauver continued to advocate a resolution by proposing the measure in the 86th and 87th Congresses, he failed to secure passage of the legislation.  In 1960, Kefauver's efforts were bolstered by those of the American Bar Association, who undertook the first serious private study of the questions of presidential succession and disability.  It ultimately recommended a constitutional amendment that, unlike the Eisenhower-Nixon Agreement, didn't establish a specific procedure but rather gave Congress the general power to establish, by law, a means by which it could declare a President disabled.  As with the Kefauver Plan, however, Congress failed to act on the ABA's recommendation.

The inauguration of John Kennedy on January 20, 1961 moved the question of presidential succession and disability to the back burner once again - but it shouldn't have.  At only 43 years old, Kennedy was seen as young, vibrant and vigorous - hardly a candidate to become disabled in office.  Decades later however, Kennedy's medical history would reveal that the need for a comprehensive succession law was at least as much needed for Kennedy as it had been for his predecessor.

Despite the perceived vigor of the chief executive, Kefauver pressed on, being joined later by New York Senator Kenneth Keating.  Keating would propose Senate Joint Resolution 35 - a bill that encompassed many points recommended by the American Bar Association study, and Kefauver would join Keating's bandwagon along with Connecticut Senator Thomas Dodd.  By the summer of 1963, it appeared as though at long last the issue of presidential disability would be addressed.  But as had happened so many times before, fate would intervene.  On August 8, 1963, Kefauver - the champion of the idea for the previous five years - suffered a massive heart attack on the Senate floor, dying two days later.  Kefauver's death in essence killed the effort for the time being, and nearly killed the Senate subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.

Enter Birch Bayh

Born in 1928, at the age of 34 Indiana state legislator Birch Evans Bayh, Jr. decided to move up in the political world - way up - squaring off against three term incumbent Republican Homer Capehart for his seat.  Reflective of the youth and vigor that two years earlier had accompanied John Kennedy during his presidential campaign, Bayh upset Capehart by a razor-thin margin and, at just 35, became among the youngest United States Senators in history.  As an up-and-comer, Bayh was appointed to the powerful Judiciary Committee - a plum assignment for any Senator, let alone one in his first term.  Upon Estes Kefauver's death in 1963, Bayh approached Judiciary Committee chair James Eastland of Mississippi about succeeding Kefauver as chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.

Much to Bayh's surprise, Eastland gave him the chair in an effort to groom him, and Bayh responded by resurrecting a committee that had been practically left for dead.  Bayh studied prior efforts to address presidential succession and disability, and determined that a constitutional amendment was necessary to settle the matter.  Specifically, Bayh thought the overall plan should encompass three key points:

(1)  Permitting a Vice Presidential vacancy to be filled when it occurred, as had happened sixteen times previously due to death, succession or resignation.

(2)  Providing a solution to the question of presidential disability.

(3)  Revising the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.

Bayh reasoned that the best method of filling a Vice Presidential vacancy was to have the President nominate a successor who would then be confirmed by Congress.  This process would ensure that the Vice President would work hand-in-hand with the President, and yet would be chosen by representatives of the people - just as the electoral college elects a Vice President every four years.  Bayh reviewed presidential disability as well, reviewing the work of Kefauver and Keating.  The Kefauver Plan was viewed by Bayh as the best overall solution, but Bayh wondered, "What would occur if a President and his Vice President disagreed on the President's ability to resume office?"

Bayh's efforts took on new significance quickly following the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.  New President Lyndon Johnson had suffered a near-fatal heart attack in 1955, and the two men next in line to succeed him under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 - House Speaker John McCormack and Senate President pro tempore Carl Hayden - were 71 and 86 years old, respectively.  It didn't exactly instill a lot of confidence in the nation's leadership in an age where a catastrophic nuclear attack was seen as more likely than not.  After seeing Senate Joint Resolution 35 die with Kefauver, Bayh submitted his own bill (Senate Joint Resolution 139).  It was similar in many ways to Kefauver's bill and a hybrid of Kefauver's plan and the Eisenhower-Nixon Agreement, but was seen as too constrictive and failed to pass the 88th Congress.

Putting Muscle Behind the Hustle

The 1964 election of Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey temporarily set minds at ease regarding presidential succession, but while in the past the filing of a Vice Presidential vacancy had caused momentum on the issue to be lost, Bayh pressed on.  He was aided by President Johnson himself, who in his 1965 State of the Union address advised "Even the best of government is subject to the worst of hazards.  To that end I will propose laws to insure the necessary continuity of leadership should the President be disabled or die."  With the backing of Johnson - the chief executive with perhaps the most impressive legislative credentials in American history - Bayh was elated, confident that Johnson's support would help get an amendment passed.  The resulting legislation was proposed in both houses of the 89th Congress within days of one another.  And as a symbolic gesture that signified the importance of the need for an amendment to be passed, the legislation was numbered as House Joint Resolution 1 and Senate Joint Resolution 1, respectively.

Getting the Job Done - At Last

The original form of Senate Joint Resolution 1 however was still seen as incomplete to its task, and as such the House and Senate worked out its details in conference committee.  The Senate passed the report, and thus, the amendment, by a 68-5 vote; and on April 13, 1965, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in overwhelmingly passing the amendment 368-29.  For the first time, an amendment clarifying presidential succession and disability was before state legislatures for their consideration.  Realizing that the amendment was long overdue, state legislatures took remarkably little time in ratifying the amendment.  Wisconsin and Nebraska were the first to ratify, and other states did so in rapid succession:

On February 10, 1967, less than two years after its submission to the states, Minnesota and Nevada both ratified - representing the 37th and 38th states to do so.  What many perceived as a serious flaw in the constitution had, after 179 years, finally been corrected.  Never one to miss a photo opportunity, to commemorate the occasion President Johnson staged a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on February 23, 1967, at which General Services Administrator Lawson Knott formally certified that the amendment was now part of the United States Constitution.

Bayh would go on to serve in the United States Senate for three terms, during which time he would author a second Constitutional amendment (the 26th, which made the voting age 18 across the nation) before being defeated for a fourth term in 1980 by one James Danforth Quayle III.  Bayh left the Senate and practiced law, but in 1999 the Bayh name would return to the Senate as son Birch Evans Bayh III (commonly known as "Evan") won the first of two terms to his father's old seat.