Ratified on January 23, 1933, the Twentieth Amendment (Amendment XX) to the United States Constitution moved the beginning and ending of the terms of the president and vice president from March 4 to January 20. It moved the start and end dates for members of Congress from March 1 to January 21. In both cases the start and end time is at noon. It also gives the procedure to follow if for some reason there is no president-elect.
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Background
In the later part of the eighteenth century, when the Constitution was written, travel and communications were both very slow by modern standards. To cross the Atlantic Ocean could take several weeks. Traveling by horseback or by carriage on crude roads in the US could take even longer. Communications were mainly by letter or messenger. For these reasons the framers of the Constitution allowed for the longer periods of time it took to send and receive messages. Four months, the time from the election in November to the swearing-in in March, was necessary at the time.
By the 1930s, a railroad passenger could cross the country in 3 days. The Post Office had been using airmail since 1918. But vastly improved travel times and communications were not the only reasons behind the Twentieth Amendment. The joint resolution calling for the amendment was sponsored by Republican Senator George William Norris of Nebraska. Called the "Lame Duck" Amendment, it acquired this name because Norris wanted to eliminate the lame-duck sessions of Congress where outgoing members still held office and voted on bills for several months before the new members could be sworn in. The bill he wrote applied to both houses of Congress, the offices of President and Vice-President.
Another area the amendment addressed was with the succession of the president if the president-elect died before taking office. It provides for the vice-president elect to become the president-elect and take office on January 20. The amendment also give Congress the power to legislate on other issues dealing with the succession of the president.
Effects of the Twentieth Amendment
The sessions of Congress between the election and the beginning of a new term are called "lame duck" sessions because members of Congress who were voted out of office still attend and can still vote. Originally the term "lame duck" was a financial term meaning those who could not repay a loan. As used in politics, a representative who lost an election was no longer accountable to the voters. As the framers of the Twentieth Amendment saw it, lame duck representatives should not be able to vote since voters had already rejected their views. The Twentieth Amendment only shortened the lame duck period by six weeks. Between 1933 and 2012, 18 lame-duck sessions of Congress have passed laws.