The Twentieth Amendment

Under the original schedule, Presidents and members of Congress took office on March 4, four months after the November election, and a newly elected Congress often did not meet until December of the following year, thirteen months after it was chosen. Meanwhile, defeated lame duck members kept voting. Senator George Norris of Nebraska championed reform through the 1920s, and Congress proposed the Twentieth Amendment on March 2, 1932. It was ratified on January 23, 1933, during the long interregnum after Franklin Roosevelt's election, when a banking crisis worsened while the outgoing administration remained in office.

Section 1 ends the terms of the President and Vice President at noon on January 20 and of members of Congress at noon on January 3. Section 2 requires Congress to assemble at least once a year, beginning on January 3 unless it sets another day by law. The new dates first applied in 1934 and 1935, and Roosevelt's second inauguration, on January 20, 1937, was the first held under the amendment. Congress still meets in lame duck sessions after November elections, but for a shorter period.

Sections 3 and 4 address gaps in presidential succession. If the President-elect dies before taking office, the Vice President-elect becomes President, and if no President has qualified by Inauguration Day, the Vice President-elect acts as President until one does. Congress may provide for cases in which neither qualifies, and for the death of a candidate in a contingent election in the House or Senate, though it has never done the latter. The amendment works with the Twenty-fifth Amendment and the Presidential Succession Act to ensure continuity in the presidency.