COMMENCEMENT OF THE TERMS OF OFFICE

TWENTIETH AMENDMENT

SECTIONS 1–6. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms

of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this

article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors

shall then begin.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and

such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the

President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have

been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term,

or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the

Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall

have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case

wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall

have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the

manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such

person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President

shall have qualified.

The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death

of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives

may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have

devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the

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persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been

ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years

from the date of its submission.

PURPOSE OF THE AMENDMENT

In its report on the proposed Twentieth Amendment, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary suggested several reasons for its

passage and ratification. It said in part:

“[W]hen our Constitution was adopted there was some reason

for such a long intervention of time between the election and the

actual commencement of work by the new Congress. . . . Under present conditions [of communication and transportation] the result of

elections is known all over the country within a few hours after

the polls close, and the Capital City is within a few days’ travel of

the remotest portions of the country. . . .”

“Another effect of the amendment would be to abolish the socalled short session of Congress. . . . Every other year, under our

Constitution, the terms of Members of the House and one-third of

the Members of the Senate expire on the 4th day of March. . . .

Experience has shown that this brings about a very undesirable legislative condition. It is a physical impossibility during such a short

session for Congress to give attention to much general legislation

for the reason that it requires practically all of the time to dispose

of the regular appropriation bills. . . . The result is a congested condition that brings about either no legislation or illy considered legislation. . . .”

“If it should happen that in the general election in November

in presidential years no candidate for President had received a majority of all the electoral votes, the election of a President would

then be thrown into the House of Representatives and the memberships of the House of Representatives called upon to elect a President would be the old Congress and not the new one just elected

by the people. It might easily happen that the Members of the House

of Representative, upon whom devolved the solemn duty of electing

a Chief Magistrate for 4 years, had themselves been repudiated at

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the election that had just occurred, and the country would be confronted with the fact that a repudiated House, defeated by the people

themselves at the general election, would still have the power to

elect a President who would be in control of the country for the

next 4 years. It is quite apparent that such a power ought not to

exist, and that the people having expressed themselves at the ballot box should through the Representatives then selected, be able

to select the President for the ensuing term. . . .”

“The question is sometimes asked, Why is an amendment to the

Constitution necessary to bring about this desirable change? The

Constitution [before this amendment] does not provide the date when

the terms of Senators and Representatives shall begin. It does fix

the term of Senators at 6 years and of Members of the House of

Representatives at 2 years. The commencement of the terms of the

first President and Vice President and of Senators and Representatives composing the First Congress was fixed by an act of [the Continental] Congress adopted September 13, 1788, and that act provided ‘that the first Wednesday in March next to be the time for

commencing proceedings under the Constitution.’ It happened that

the first Wednesday in March was the 4th day of March, and hence

the terms of the President and Vice President and Members of Congress began on the 4th day of March. Since the Constitution provides that the term of Senators shall be 6 years and the term of

Members of the House of Representatives 2 years, it follows that

this change cannot be made without changing the terms of office of

Senators and Representatives, which would in effect be a change of

the Constitution. By another act (the act of March 1, 1792) Congress provided that the terms of President and Vice President should

commence on the 4th day of March after their election. It seems

clear, therefore, that an amendment to the Constitution is necessary to give relief from existing conditions.” 1

As thus stated, the exact term of the President and Vice President was fixed by the Constitution, Art. II, § 1, cl. 1, at 4 years,

and became actually effective, by resolution of the Continental Congress, on the 4th of March 1789. Since this amendment was declared adopted on February 6, 1933, § 1 in effect shortened, by the

interval between January 20 and March 4, 1937, the terms of the

President and Vice President elected in 1932.

Similarly, it shortened, by the intervals between January 3 and

March 4, the terms of Senators elected for terms ending March 4,

1935, 1937, and 1939; and thus temporarily modified the Seventeenth Amendment, fixing the terms of Senators at 6 years. It also

1 S. REP. NO. 26, 72d Cong., 1st Sess. 2, 4, 5, 6 (1932).

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shortened the terms of Representatives elected to the Seventythird Congress, by the interval between January 3 and March 4,

1935, and temporarily modified Article I, § 2, clause 1, fixing the

terms of Representatives at 2 years.

Section 1 further modifies the Twelfth Amendment in its reference to March 4 as the date by which the House must exercise its

choice of a President.

Section 2 supersedes clause 2 of § 4 of Article I. The setting of

an exact hour for meeting constitutes a recognition of the long practice of Congress, which in 1867 was for the first time enacted into

permanent law,2 only to be repealed in 1871.3

When the 3d of January fell on Sunday (in 1937), Congress did

by law appoint a different day for its assemblage.4

Pursuant to the authority conferred upon it by § 3 of this amendment, Congress shaped the Presidential Succession Act of 1948 5 to

meet the situation which would arise from the failure of both President elect and Vice President elect to qualify on or before the time

fixed for the beginning of the new Presidential term.

2 Ch. 10, 14 Stat. 378.

3 Ch. 21, § 30, 17 Stat. 12. See 1 A. HINDS’ PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES § 11 (1907).

4 Ch. 713, 49 Stat. 1826.

5 Ch. 644, 62 Stat. 672, as amended, 3 U.S.C. § 19. See also the discussion of

“Presidential Succession” under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, infra.

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