Do memorandums by President Joe Biden prove he is transferring his presidential power to others in advance of his death? No, that's not true: The delegation of powers to lower-level officials is a common practice in the federal government. There are dozens of examples during the Biden, Trump and Obama administrations where each president delegated limited "functions and authorities" to others under specific laws or acts.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter, by far-right activist Laura Loomer on July 22, 2024. The post's caption said:
🚨BIDEN IS DYING AND HAS STARTED QUIETLY DELEGATING HIS AUTHORITY AS PRESIDENT TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY AND THE SECRETARY OF STATE🚨
In an act that is further evidence that Joe Biden @JoeBiden is dying and @KamalaHarris will be President soon, today while everyone was distracted by the @GOPoversight hearing with @SecretService Director Kim Cheatle, and news of Joe Biden dropping out, today Biden started quietly delegating his authority as President of the United States to the Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State.
Biden is dying, and he's dying fast. ...
BOOKMARK THIS TWEET! 👇🏻
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Jul 23 14:56:25 2024 UTC)
The post provided no evidence to support its claim that Biden's memos prove he is transferring his presidential power to others ahead of his death. Additionally, there's no evidence to suggest Biden is dying.
Delegating power
The delegation of presidential "functions and authorities" is common in the U.S. federal government and is authorized under Title 3, Chapter 4, Section 301 of the U.S. Code, a collection of the general and permanent laws of the United States. Section 301 appears below:
§301. General authorization to delegate functions; publication of delegations
The President of the United States is authorized to designate and empower the head of any department or agency in the executive branch, or any official thereof who is required to be appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to perform without approval, ratification, or other action by the President (1) any function which is vested in the President by law, or (2) any function which such officer is required or authorized by law to perform only with or subject to the approval, ratification, or other action of the President: Provided, That nothing contained herein shall relieve the President of his responsibility in office for the acts of any such head or other official designated by him to perform such functions. Such designation and authorization shall be in writing, shall be published in the Federal Register, shall be subject to such terms, conditions, and limitations as the President may deem advisable, and shall be revocable at any time by the President in whole or in part.
The rationale behind such delegation is that one person can't do everything, so the president is allowed to designate others to perform various functions as he assigns.
The post
The memorandum included in the social media post is just one of the dozens that were issued during the Biden, Trump and Obama administrations where the presidents delegated very specific "functions and authorities" to others in the executive branch of government to fulfill the dictates of federal laws. Each memo pertains to a distinct law or act; it's not a wholesale handing over of presidential powers.
As of July 23, 2024, a Lead Stories search (archived here) of the White House website found the term "delegation of certain functions and authorities" in 41 entries, including the memo showcased in the post.
A separate search of the archived website for the Trump White House (Jan. 20, 2017-Jan. 20, 2021) turned up 14 entries for the same term, meaning Donald Trump also delegated his authority.
A third search, this time of the archived website for the Obama White House (Jan. 20, 2009-Jan. 20, 2017), showed 11 entries using the term. So, Barack Obama also delegated as well.
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Joe Biden can be found here.
