WASHINGTON (AP) – Despite widespread speculation that the Sept. 11 terrorists had targeted the Capitol, Congress is still arguing over how to quickly repopulate the House of Representatives if an attack kills most of the nation’s lawmakers.
The Constitution allows state governors to quickly appoint new senators if something happens to the Senate, but does not specify how to reconstitute the House beyond holding special elections.
That could leave the House partly empty for weeks during a national crisis and lead to other officials deciding issues, such as possible nuclear retaliation, without congressional oversight, a House member told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.
“As an alternative to either leaving the House vacant for five weeks or more, to leaving an unelected person in charge of the entire country, to a rushed election that doesn’t do justice to the process, it is possible to suggest that we temporarily appoint replacements to House members,” said Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash.
Baird has called for a constitutional amendment allowing governors to make emergency interim appointments if 25 percent of the House is killed or incapacitated. Baird’s legislation died last year without being voted on by the House.
The Continuity of Government Commission, a project of the conservative American Enterprise Institute and the more liberal Brookings Institution, also suggested in June that a constitutional amendment would be a good idea.
The commission, made up of scholars and one-time government officials like former House speakers Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Tom Foley, D-Wash., also said governors should appoint the replacements.
“As the ‘People’s House,’ we have never contemplated appointment and as such we want to preserve our distinct quality of being sent as the elected representatives of the people,” said House Rules Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif.
He and other House members believe the Constitution already gives Congress the means to quickly replace House members by saying “The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof, but the Congress may at anytime by law make or alter such legislation.”
They want legislation allowing the House speaker to call a special election within 21 days if there are more than 100 vacancies in the House, unless a regularly scheduled election is within 51 days.
“In the long term, I believe that after a national crisis, when large number of members of the House have been killed and even the existence of our republic may be at stake, we should still choose to have faith in elections, not selections,” Dreier said. “In a national crisis, printing ballots and conducting elections will not be insurmountable obstacles to Americans.”
But waiting for a special election while what’s left of the American government decides what to do about the attack on Congress leaves one important branch of government out of the loop, Baird said.
“We value direct elections, but we also value the House of Representatives and its constitutional authority, and I don’t want to abandon that for five weeks or more during a time of national crisis to people who are almost entirely unelected,” Baird said.
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AP-ES-09-09-03 1623EDT
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