Who's the President?

[Thomas Thorne]

According to the 20st Amendment, the terms of the old House and 1/3 of the Senate expire on Jan 3. By law the old congress is required to set a date for its successor to convene which for some reason never seems to be precisely Jan 3 but is always within a few days afterwards. I think I read the 113th Congress will convene on Monday Jan 7. Each house will organize itself and swear in new members. The new House of Representatives can not undertake any business until it chooses a speaker. The usual practice of certifying the Electoral Vote is usually done on Jan 6 but can't be done until the new congress is organized. Any mandated voting for president or vice president would start in the almost 2 week period before Jan 20 when the presidential term expires per the 20th Amendment.

I just checked the Presidential Succession act of 1947. Besides the removal, death , and resignation of both the president and vice president there is the quaint phraseology "failure to qualify" which covers the situation in which a congressional election fails to select a president and vice president. The House Speaker would have to relinquish his speakership and resign his House seat and become president for 15 minutes or 48 months depending how prolonged the house and senate deadlock persisted. If I were Speaker, I might not appreciate the glories of being President for a day and then being unemployed.
Tom