Establish an Independent Medical Review Board Addressing Presidential Capacity

CONGRESS MUST ESTABLISH AN INDEPENDENT MEDICAL REVIEW BOARD TO SAFEGUARD PRESIDENTIAL CAPACITY AND DEMOCRATIC STABILITY As your constituent, I urge you to introduce and support legislation establishing a permanent, independent Presidential Medical Review Board to conduct standardized medical and cognitive fitness evaluations of the President and Vice President and to integrate those findings into the Twenty-Fifth Amendment process. This reform would protect national security, preserve continuity of government, reduce partisan conflict, and prevent speculation about presidential capacity. This proposal does not alter constitutional qualifications or empower unelected officials to remove a President. It strengthens our system by supplying neutral, medically grounded evidence to inform decisions left to political actors. WHAT THIS PROPOSAL WOULD DO This legislation would create a standing, bipartisan Medical Review Board composed of specialists in neurology, geriatrics, psychiatry, and emergency medicine. Members would be appointed jointly by congressional leadership and the Chief Justice, hold security clearances, serve staggered terms, and be removable only for cause. The Board would conduct standardized evaluations on a regular schedule and upon defined triggering events, such as extended hospitalization, neurological trauma, or documented disorientation. Triggers would initiate review, not removal. The Board would issue public summary certifications using uniform categories: fit to serve, fit with limitations, temporarily unfit, or unfit. Sensitive medical data would remain confidential. The Board would possess no removal authority. Its sole function would be to provide written medical findings to the Vice President under Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. WHY THIS REFORM IS NECESSARY Incapacity determinations currently rely entirely on political actors, without any independent medical standard. This creates incentives for denial, concealment, delay, and paralysis when clarity is essential. Presidents now routinely serve into advanced age, when risks of stroke, dementia, and neurodegenerative disease rise sharply. Yet the nation has no formal mechanism to distinguish rumor from reality. The resulting uncertainty destabilizes markets, weakens allied confidence, invites adversarial testing, and erodes public trust. HOW THIS STRENGTHENS DEMOCRACY RATHER THAN WEAKENING IT This proposal does not replace political accountability. It improves it by ensuring that constitutional decisions are informed by evidence. HOW CONGRESS CAN ADOPT THIS NOW Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment explicitly authorizes Congress to create an alternative body to participate in incapacity determinations. This reform can therefore be enacted by statute. Congress can adopt it through hearings, expert testimony, bipartisan drafting, and targeted appropriations. I urge you to lead on this issue and modernize our constitutional safeguards.