Proposal addresses disaster in Congress

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A Democratic lawmaker proposed an amendment to the Constitution on Wednesday to deal with a doomsday situation in which one-fourth of House members are killed, disabled or missing in a terrorist attack.

"We live in a time of tremendously destructive weapons," said Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash. "Every day that goes by that we don’t resolve this issue is another day of vulnerability."

Under the Constitution, governors make appointments to fill out terms when a senator dies or leaves office before the end of a term. In the case of the House, however, members must be replaced by direct elections, which can take months to carry out.

Baird proposed a change in the Constitution that would give governors appointment powers over House members when one-fourth of the 435-member House is incapacitated in an attack.

A governor would have seven days to appoint House members to 90-day terms. Special elections would be held within that 90-day period.

Baird said he had talked to senior members from both parties about his proposal. Without endorsing the amendment, they "recognized the potential seriousness of the situation and the need to address it."

Every year legislators introduce dozens of bills to amend the Constitution, but they are almost always unsuccessful. The Constitution has been amended only 27 times in more than 200 years, including the 10 articles of the Bill of Rights. The last amendment, ratified in 1992, stated that any pay raise legislators vote for themselves will not occur until after an intervening election.

The Constitution is amended after approval by two-thirds of both the House and the Senate and ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures.