[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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