Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
Charles Chaplin
It varies each year. Sometimes it is State or others in line.
Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Hilary Clinton was also absent from the Address, as she was at a meeting in London. If all the attendees at the Address had been killed, she would have become President. However, since the public knew about this, another member of the Cabinet had to be the designated survivor.
State of the Union Address
the purpose of the state of union address is i have no idea
The inaugueral address is given by the president to congress,
There is a line of succession to the Presidency, so that if the President and the Vice President die, someone can succeed to the Presidency. After the Vice President, it would be the Speaker of the House, then the President pro tempore of the Senate, then the members of the Cabinet. The Secretary of State is the 4th in line to the Presidency; the Secretary of Homeland Security is 18th in line (as this department was the most recently created). Because the Vice President, the entire House and Senate, the Supreme Court and the Cabinet all attend the State of the Union Address, one member of the Cabinet does not attend and instead becomes the "designated survivor". The Designated Survivor is placed under maximum protection in another part of the country. This practice began during the Cold War, for obvious reasons.
State of the Union Address
State of Union itself mandated in U.S. Constitution.
A State of the Union address generally refers to any speech in which the President addresses the country as a whole.
In the constitution it says the President must address the congress over the State Of The Union once a year.
State of the Union Address