[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.J. Res. 66 Introduced in House (IH)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. J. RES. 66
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to
provide for terms of office for Members of the House of
Representatives.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 24, 2003
Mr. Stenholm (for himself, Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, Mr. Rogers of
Alabama, and Mr. Hill) introduced the following joint resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
JOINT RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to
provide for terms of office for Members of the House of
Representatives.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House
concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be
valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when
ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States
within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:
``Article --
``Section 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of
Members chosen in a general election by the people of the Several
States. Representatives shall serve terms of office of four years,
except that the term of office for terms corresponding to general
elections conducted in years corresponding to the decennial census
shall be for two years. Nothing in this section shall be construed to
limit the number of consecutive terms a Representative may serve.
``Section 2. Section 1 shall take effect beginning with the first
general election for Representatives held after the ratification of
this Article, except that if a general election for Representatives is
conducted in 2008, Representatives so elected shall serve terms of
office of two years.
``Section 3. If a Member of the House of Representatives is a
candidate for the Senate of the United States, the term of such
Representative shall end 30 days from the date on which such
Representative files a notice of candidacy, and the Representative
shall not be eligible to serve in the House of Representatives for two
years from such date. As soon as the Representative becomes a candidate
for the Senate of the United States, the executive authority of the
State from which the Representative was chosen as a Representative
shall issue writs of election to fill the vacancy to be created by the
candidacy of such Representative.
``Section 4. For the purposes of this article, any person elected
to fill a vacancy arising in the House of Representatives shall be
deemed to have been elected to the term of office of the Representative
who the person is replacing.''.
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