AMERICAN CONGRESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21399, 25 January 1933, Page 9

AMERICAN CONGRESS

"LAME DUCK" SESSION STATES APPROVE ABOLITION NEW YORK. Jan. 23 The proposal to amend the United States Constitution so as to abolish the system under which Congress continues to sit. in what is known as a. "lame duck" session after a new Congress has been elected received the required ratification of 36 States to-day when the Missouri House of Representatives approved a measure to that effect.

The nation's politics therefor* have shaken off the grip of the stage coach era. The amendment proclaims that henceforth officials defeated at ballots shall have little voice in the government of the country.

In nearly record time, less than a year, 36 States have ratified the amendment. Congress has taken ten years to agree to propose it. The change will come into effect on October 15, and will thereafter control the terms of Congress and the President. Under the amendment a Congress elected in November of any year will meet on January 3, and the President elected in November will also take office in January. Under tho existing system established in 1788, in the December after the November elections the old Congress, full of defeated members, comes back and legislates until March 4 when it goes out.

The new President also takes office on that date. Unless he calls a special session the new Congress does not meet until the following December, 13 months after the election.