Steve Quayle News Alerts

October 7, 2003
By Dale Hurd
CBN News Sr. Reporter

On Sept. 11, 2001, 40 minutes may have been all that separated the United States from a constitutional crisis. United Flight 93 was 40 minutes late leaving Newark airport. Those 40 minutes allowed passengers to be alerted by cell phone to the Al-Qaida plot. They bravely stormed the cockpit, bringing down United 93 in Pennsylvania.

Before his capture, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera TV that Flight 93 was going to be flown into the Capitol Building.

The plane would have struck shortly before 10 a.m., the House was conducting morning business, and large numbers of House members were in the building.

The Senate was not in session.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) said, "I'd be dead today. Because I was in the Capitol to bring the first three bills up on 9-11, right when that plane was scheduled to strike the Capitol."

Sensenbrenner is concerned that a future attack could kill or incapacitate enough representatives to plunge the federal government into chaos.

When a Senator dies in office, the governor of the affected state can appoint a replacement to fill the remainder of the term. Not so in the House. If a member of Congress is killed or incapacitated, a special election must be called. And special elections normally take four months.

Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institution said, "To leave the country for weeks if not months without a functioning Congress, with what might be, if we're lucky, a benign form of martial law, is simply unacceptable."

Ornstein is pushing for a Constitutional Amendment that would call for the appointment of congressmen until elections can be held.

He said, "The Constitution has a hole in it, something the framers never could have anticipated in the age of terrorism, in post 9-11. And that is that we could have potentially, and now unfortunately, a real possibility, a large number of members of Congress killed and or incapacitated."

There are 435 members in the House. And in order to do any business, to vote on any bills, the Constitution says Congress must have a quorum - a voting majority - of 218 members. If an attack wiped out most of Congress, America would have to wait months for new representatives to be nominated and voted on.

Ornstein's amendment would give governors the power to make temporary appointments if a majority of a state's congressional delegation were significantly diminished. The appointments would stand until an incapacitated member is able to return, or until a special election could be held.

That plan doesn't work for Sensenbrenner, who insists that House members must always be elected.

Sensenbrenner said, "Even the Brits did not change their unwritten constitution while they were under attack during the Second World War. The House of Representatives, like the House of Commons in Great Britain, is the 'people's house.' And no one has served in either of these great legislative bodies without first being elected by the people."

Chairman Sensenbrenner has crafted his own solution with HR 2844, the Continuity of Representation Act.

Sensenbrenner describes his measure, "With my bill, which is clearly authorized under Article One, Section Four of the Constitution, we will be able to fill the vacancies in the House of Representatives within 21-days after the terrorist strike occurs."

But even the California recall is a 60-day special election. Ornstein believes holding congressional elections in 21-days is wishful thinking.

Sensenbrenner said, "I would tell them that an imperfect election is better than no election at all."

Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers that the Constitution gives Congress the power to make special election rules whenever "extraordinary circumstances" warrant. The war on terror abounds with extraordinary circumstances, such as dirty bombs and chemical weapons like Sarin and Anthrax. And some would argue that we need to start planning for something even worse than the loss of part of Congress.

Probably the worst case is something happening at a presidential inaugural. An attack at an inaugural could crate a crisis of succession within all three branches of our government.

Ornstein said, "Imagine a suitcase nuclear bomb going off at the inaugural. The President Elect, the Vice-President Elect, most of the incoming Cabinet, the outgoing President and Vice-President. The entire Supreme Court. The vast bulk of the members of Congress are all there. Nobody left in the line if people are wiped out."

He continued, "Imagine, for example, that some members of Congress weren't at the inaugural. A handful are left. They say 'we constitute a quorum because we represent all those members of Congress who are still living.' Half of us can get together and choose a Speaker of the House and that'll become the president for four years. That could be a Nancy Pelosi or a liberal Democrat."

All sides agree that something needs to be done. And that there needs to be a sense of urgency so that the government has a plan in place in case there is another 9-11.

As Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said, "Congress has a duty to the American people to make a plan, an appropriate plan, in the event there is a doomsday scenario that occurs."

http://www.cbn.com/CBNNews/News/031007a.asp