Lawmakers Slowly Plan for the Worst (Doomsday Plan)

[kskiska]

Two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lawmakers are gradually coming to grips with their own personal nightmare: how to ensure that Congress can keep functioning if a large number of its members are killed or incapacitated in a catastrophe.

But the process is slow and members appear to have conflicting views about possible solutions, including quickie elections to choose successors and a constitutional amendment to allow appointment of temporary replacements. For many lawmakers, there is also a natural reluctance to contemplate such a distasteful subject.

"Nobody relishes the idea of planning for their own demise," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) observed earlier this summer. "But it will be far too late to establish a protocol for continuity after a catastrophe strikes the Capitol building." Cornyn is helping lead the effort in the Senate as chairman of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution.

The problem is particularly acute for the House. While the Constitution provides that governors can appoint new senators to vacant seats, vacancies in the House can only be filled by special elections, which normally take about four months. Even in the Senate, there is no provision for incapacitated senators. There are also a host of other questions, such as where Congress might convene if Washington were uninhabitable.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39719-2003Sep7.html

[JCMach1]

1. Cornyn is leading this...

:puke:

That makes me feel more comfortable... NOT

[Wwagsthedog]

2. OMG

Another run on duct tape and plastic sheeting.

[Nicholas_J]

3. Plan already completely exists and has existed

Since Jimmy Carters presidency.

There is a chain of coaammd that extend through all branches of the government and at all levels and ins such a national emergency hoever is the Chief Executive can seize dicatatorial powers in until a reconstituted Congress votes to call and end to the emergency.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Keerist, would it make any difference?

They've all been incapacitated already!

[InkAddict]

6. OMG, Don't Say That - It Just Can't be True!

(De Nile is a river in the Middle East.)

[LeftCoast]

5. This needs to be watched closely - Think Reichstag Fire...

We need to be VERY cautious with these sorts of disaster/congress replacement plans...

[kysrsoze]

7. Oh, f*ck.

Why did you have to say something like that? And of course, it doesn't seem very far out in left field.

[Zhade]

9. I had that EXACT same thought.

Could this be propaganda preparation...?

God, I hope I'm just being paranoid tonight.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

10. I think it is, and here is why:

The have been plans for things such as this for decades. Remember, at one time the US was planning for nuclear war. That is why this "shadow government" stuff always made me laugh.

It seems that I, as a New Zealander, knew more about US disaster planning than most Americans did. For example, Weather Mountain is a bunker that has been around for decades, and this is the location of the "Shadow Government" - basically representatives of all Government departments ready to take over should their leaders be killed in a nuclear exchange.

The only difference is that now instead of the Soviet Union, the source of the expected "decapitation strike" (yes, there is even a military term for it) is Al Qaeda.

So why all the talk of what to do if this happens? This should already be thoroughly decided upon as part of the "Continuity of Government" plans worked out decades ago.

Maybe they know something we don't, and these plans don't seem sufficient any more?

[symbolman]

8. In the event they must

quickly allow the Supreme Court to appoint a complete idiot, incapable of finishing a sentence..

Oops. Nevermind.