21st Century President Act

21st Century President Act

This act revises the definition of immediate family for purposes of a criminal offense involving a threat to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm on a former President or a member of the immediate family of a former President.

Specifically, it replaces gender-specific references to a former President's wife and widow with the gender-neutral terms spouse and surviving spouse.

[117th Congress Public Law 272]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



[[Page 136 STAT. 4181]]

Public Law 117-272
117th Congress

                                 An Act


 
To amend gendered terms in Federal law relating to the President and the 
       President's spouse. <<NOTE: Dec. 27, 2022 -  [H.R. 3285]>> 

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: 21st Century 
President Act. 18 USC 1 note.>> 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``21st Century President Act''.
SEC. 2. MODERNIZATION OF TERMS RELATING TO THE PRESIDENT AND THE 
                    SPOUSE OF A PRESIDENT.

    Section 879(b)(1)(A) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by 
striking ``the wife of a former President during his lifetime, the widow 
of a former President until her death or remarriage'' and inserting 
``the spouse of a former President during a former President's lifetime, 
the surviving spouse of a former President until the surviving spouse's 
death or remarriage''.

    Approved December 27, 2022.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--H.R. 3285:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOUSE REPORTS: No. 117-380 (Comm. on the Judiciary).
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 168 (2022):
            June 21, considered and passed House.
            Dec. 20, considered and passed Senate.

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