1973

COMMENCEMENT OF THE TERMS OF THE PRESIDENT,

VICE PRESIDENT, AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, ETC.

TWENTIETH AMENDMENT

SECTION 1. 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.

SECTION 2. 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.

SECTION 3. 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.

SECTION 4. 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
1974 AMENDMENT 20—TERMS OF PRESIDENT, ETC.

choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the

death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose

a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

SECTION 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th

day of October following the ratification of this article.

SECTION 6. 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

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary in its report suggested

several reasons for the proposed Twentieth Amendment. 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
AMENDMENT 20—TERMS OF PRESIDENT, ETC. 1975

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

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 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.
1976 AMENDMENT 20—TERMS OF PRESIDENT, ETC.

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 Twenty-fifth

Amendment, infra, pp. 1991–93.

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

shortened the terms of Representatives elected to the Seventy-third

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.