Continuity of Congress

[Continuity of Congress]

Continuity of Congress
After September 11, many people have been working to ensure that Congress could function after a terrorist attack.  Given the large number of proposals, opinion pieces, events and hearings on the issue, Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has created a webpage that collects all of the relevant information in one place:
www.aeipoliticalcorner.org/continuity.htm

We hope you visit the webpage, and we welcome your comments on this important issue.  Please contact us at continuity at aei.org.

Summary of the Issue:

The fourth hijacked plane, United Flight 93, was heading for Washington, DC on September 11.  Its target was very likely the White House or the Capitol.  If it had hit the Capitol that Tuesday morning, large numbers of members would have been killed or incapacitated.

In the aftermath of such an attack, Congress might not have been able to function for months.  Why?  First, the constitution allows governors to make temporary appointments of Senators until a special election can be held.  However, vacancies in the House of Representatives can be filled only by special election, a process that takes three to six months.  Second, neither the Senate nor the House has a mechanism to replace incapacitated members temporarily.  With the possibility of chemical or biological attacks, there is a distinct possibility of mass incapacitation of members.  Given these two issues, Congress after an attack might be either unable to muster a quorum to operate or have to function with a small unrepresentative few acting as the Congress.

During the Cold War, the Senate three times passed constitutional amendments to allow temporary appointments to the House, but the House never responded.  After September 11th, a number of people began to consider the implications of an attack.  Both Representative Brian Baird (D-WA) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) have introduced constitutional amendments to allow governors to make temporary appointments to the House in the case of mass vacancies.  Norman Ornstein has written several pieces in Roll Call, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.  He also convened a working group of congressional, legal and constitutional experts, which generated a number of different proposals, some to amend the constitution, others to changes laws and Congressional rules.  Ornstein's proposed constitutional amendment allows governors to make temporary appointments from a list of successors supplied by each member.  It allows incapacitated members to be replaced by temporary appointments, but to reclaim their seats when they recover.  Former speakers Newt Gingrich and Tom Foley collaborated on a proposal to allow for temporary delegates to operate under the current House rules and to pass a constitutional amendment granting Congress the power to deal with such an emergency by legislation. The House Judiciary subcommittee on the constitution held one half-day hearing.

This new webpage, www.aeipoliticalcorner.org/continuity.htm, is a comprehensive source of information on the issues relating to congressional continuity.  It contains links to all of the above-mentioned proposals, as well as many others.