Proposals for Reform

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Rep. Brian Baird H.J. Res. 77 - A constitutional amendment allowing for temporary appointments by Member pre-desgination in the case of mass vacancies in the House of Representatives.

Sen. John Cornyn S.J. Res. 23 - a constitutional amendment implementing legislation providing for the event that one-fourth of the Members of either the House of Representatives or the Senate are killed or incapacitated.

Rep. Brian Baird H.J. Res 67 - a constitutional amendment to give governors the power to make temporary appointments to the House of Representatives if more than 25% of the members have been killed or incapacitated.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren H.J. Res. 77 - a constitutional amendment to allow Congress to make provisions for temporary appointments of members if 30% of the seats are vacant.

Sen. Arlen Specter S.J. Res. 30 - a constitutional amendment to give governors the power to make temporary appointments to the House of Representatives if more than 50% of the members have been killed or incapacitated. Temporary members shall be of the same party as the member who previously occupied the seat.

Norman Ornstein Proposal - a constitutional amendment to give governors the power to make temporary appointments when a majority of the state congressional delegations have been significantly diminished. Temporary appointments can be made to fill the seat of temporarily incapacitated members, but once a member recovers his or her original seat is reclaimed.

Michael Davidson Proposal - a constitutional amendment to give governors the power to make temporary appointments to fill all vacancies.

Michael Glennon Proposal - a constitutional amendment to give the power to Congress to devise a legislative solution to the problem of mass vacancies.

Rep. Brad Sherman H.R. 3816 - an amendment to the presidential succession act allowing the president to designate either the Speaker of the House or the House Majority Leader as third in the line of succession and either the Senate Majority or Minority Leader as fourth in the line of succession.

Rep. Jim Langevin H.R. 3481 - a proposal to direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to study the feasibility of remote voting and communication among members of Congress.

Alton Frye Proposal - a proposal to allow for members of the House of Representatives to designate their own temporary successors in advance to provide for the case of mass vacancies.

Seth Barrett Tillman - a proposal to delegate by statute limited legislative authority to a single house of Congress, notwithstanding INS v. Chadha.

Don Wolfensberger Proposal - a proposal to expedite special elections in the case of mass vacancies and to allow incapacitated members to take temporary leaves of absence.