News Home

Continuity legislation would assure the chamber's survival
By Mary M. Shaffrey
Journal Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives voted this week to ensure its survival if more than 100 of them are killed at once.

The Doomsday bill - one of many unofficial names for the legislation - would call for an immediate election to fill the vacancies within 49 days of such an event. It passed Thursday 329-68.

"With God's blessing, we will never have to use this piece of legislation. But, we have to seriously consider the issue of continuity in Congress," said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

This is the second time in two years that the House has passed continuity legislation. The Senate did not take up the bill last year, and it is unclear how senators will react to the House bill.

The U.S. Constitution has a provision that allows for governors to replace senators should they die in office. The Constitution does not allow for any appointments to the House of Representatives because the framers wanted to ensure that at least one chamber - of the two chambers of Congress -would be directly elected by the public. Until the early 20th century, senators were appointed either by governors or state legislatures.

The need to spell out how to deal with catastrophic events became clear after Sept. 11, 2001. However, this week's debate focused on the proper solution to a problem that everyone agreed existed.

"They had to do something, and it's probably overdue," said Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "Its difficult to imagine that they will ever need it ... although some don't think the bill is comprehensive enough."

Those opposing the bill thought that giving governors the power to appoint new members of Congress would be sufficient because of the potential leadership gap that would be created at the highest levels of government in Washington after a massive attack or catastrophic incident.

"In the case of such a disaster, we will all be under martial law anyway. I feel a better alternative might be to pass an amendment which would give the states the power to decide how to replace dead or incapacitated lawmakers," said Rep. Walter Jones, R-3rd.

Jones and Rep. Brad Miller, D-13th, were the only two members of North Carolina's House delegation to vote against the bill. Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, Mel Watt, D-12th, and Howard Coble, R-5th, voted in favor.

"This bill address the continuity of elections, but not the continuity of Congress," Jones said.

But Foxx said that after Sept. 11, the country unified and that the same thing would likely occur again. She supported the bill, she said, because it allows for Congress to continue operating in the way that the framers had in mind.

"It's important to stay within the confines of the Constitution whenever we can, and this bill is a good way of doing it," she said. "And we hope that it will never be used."