2087

COMMENCEMENT OF THE TERMS OF OFFICE 

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 

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

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

2088 AMENDMENT 20—TERMS OF THE PRESIDENT 

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 

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 repuVerDate Apr<15>2004 13:02 Jun 28, 2004 Jkt 077500 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 8222 Sfmt 8222 C:\CONAN\CON054.SGM PRFM99 PsN: CON054
AMENDMENT 20—TERMS OF THE PRESIDENT 2089

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

diated 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. 

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 

2090 AMENDMENT 20—TERMS OF THE PRESIDENT 

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 

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.