Orrin Hatch. Courtesy Office of Senator Orrin Hatch.
BYU alum and U.S. senator Orrin G. Hatch (BS ’59) is now third in the presidential line of succession.
Soon after the Republican-controlled Senate convened in January, Hatch, the Senate’s longest-serving Republican, received his new title as the Senate president pro tempore—“for the time being” in Latin. It’s a constitutional post that puts him behind the vice president and the speaker of the House in line for the presidency.
In remarks given on the Senate floor the day after becoming president pro tem, Hatch said, “Politics is the art of the possible. Ideology is important, and rhetoric is captivating, but at the end of the day, when the campaign is over, the American people sent us here to govern. We are here to protect their liberties and to improve their lives.”
