Who initiates 25th amendment

1. Who formally starts the process: President starts Section 3, Vice President plus Cabinet start Section 4

The Amendment divides initiation authority by section: when a President voluntarily acknowledges inability to discharge the office, the President sends a written declaration under Section 3 and power shifts to the Vice President as Acting President until the President declares readiness to resume duties . By contrast, Section 4’s mechanism for declaring a President unable to discharge the powers and duties can be triggered only on the Vice President’s initiative, and then only with the concurrence of a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments—or an alternate body if Congress designates one by law .

2. What “majority of the Cabinet” means in practice and the congressional gap

The constitutional text names “a majority of the principal officers of the executive departments” as the group that, together with the Vice President, may initiate Section 4, a phrase courts and commentators treat literally as a majority of Cabinet secretaries; Congress was empowered to provide an alternative body but has not done so, leaving the Vice President-plus-Cabinet model as the operative route . Legal commentators note this design intentionally restricts invocation to leaders inside the President’s own administration to reduce the risk of partisan removal via other branches .

3. Historical practice: Section 3’s real-world use, Section 4’s near-misses

Section 3 has a short track record of voluntary, procedural use: Presidents Reagan, George W. Bush and Joe Biden temporarily transferred power when undergoing medical procedures, using the written declaration the amendment contemplates . Section 4—designed for contested incapacity—has never been invoked to effect a permanent transfer, though administrations have come close and political calls for its use have arisen in moments of crisis, such as the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack when some lawmakers urged Vice President Mike Pence to consider Section 4 ^[1].

4. The practical sequence and the political firewall

If the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet transmit a written declaration to Congress claiming the President cannot discharge the duties, the Vice President immediately assumes the powers as Acting President; the President can reply with a written declaration asserting ability, which triggers a 4‑day window and then potentially a Congressional vote to resolve the dispute—an intentionally political remedy rather than a judicial one . Drafters and scholars emphasize that this route places initiation power in the hands of administration insiders precisely to make it harder for purely partisan forces to weaponize incapacity claims .

5. Who can really “initiate” in public discourse versus constitutional text

Public and media discussions sometimes imply Congress, the Cabinet collectively, or party leaders can start the amendment; the constitutional reality is narrower: the President starts Section 3; the Vice President plus a majority of Cabinet secretaries start Section 4 unless Congress legislates another body—an important distinction that explains why suggestions that Speaker or rank‑and‑file lawmakers can directly “invoke” the amendment are legally imprecise ^[1].

6. Limits of available reporting and unresolved questions

Reporting and legal summaries agree on who initiates each section but leave open contested judgment calls—how “inability” is proven, how Congress would name an alternate body, and how political pressures affect real-world willingness to act—questions the sources note but do not fully resolve, so assertions beyond the amendment’s text and recorded uses would exceed the available reporting .