mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
mr. chairman , the legislation that we are going to be considering today deals with a very , very serious issue , the possibility actually of a tragic attack that would result in the death of a significant number of our colleagues in the house . 
though i think it is safe to say that none of us are eager to consider this issue , the events of september 11 , 2001 , forced this house to consider the ramifications of a successful terrorist attack against this body . 
on that fateful day , the enemies of freedom clearly targeted the pillars of our nation . 
the terrorists attacked the world trade center which represented our economic freedom . 
they attacked the pentagon which represents our military strength . 
and , by all accounts , flight 93 was targeted either at the white house or at this building , both symbols of our form of democratic government and of our freedoms . 
in fact , only the heroic actions , the unbelievable bravery of those brave passengers on flight 93 prevented that particular plane , that particular flight , from reaching its intended target . 
and so , mr. chairman , we begin to think about the unthinkable , to do our duty and to plan for every eventuality . 
h.r. 841 , the continuity in representation act , provides a very reasonable , very well thought-out mechanism for the reconstitution of the house of representatives in the event of such a tragedy . 
the sponsor of the bill , the gentleman from wisconsin ( mr. sensenbrenner ) xz4003650 , as well as the gentleman from california ( mr. dreier ) xz4001150 and the gentleman from ohio ( mr. ney ) xz4002930 are to be commended for their great commitment and dedication in crafting this bill and bringing it to the floor today . 
the congress must ensure that the government remains strong and stable during and following a terrorist attack , and this legislation would accomplish that goal . 
mr. chairman , all the other branches of government already have contingency plans in place . 
in the case of a vacancy , the president would be replaced quickly by the existing line of succession . 
the courts would be replaced quickly by presidential appointment . 
the senate would be reconstituted very quickly through gubernatorial appointment as is outlined in the 17th amendment . 
only the house would be unable to function quickly in a time of national emergency . 
the continuity in representation act would correct this problem by requiring states to hold special elections to fill vacancies in the house of representatives not later than 49 days after the vacancy is announced by the speaker of this house in the extraordinary circumstances that vacancies in representation from the states exceed 100 . 
mr. chairman , as we grapple with this issue , we must remind ourselves that the u.s. house of representatives is the people 's house . 
for the entirety of our national existence , members of the house have been directly elected by the people . 
article 1 , section 2 of our constitution states : `` when vacancies happen in the representation from any state , the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of elections to fill such vacancies. '' the key word here is `` elections. '' no event should be reason enough to change this historic and constitutional constant . 
the bill under consideration today allows us to remain true to the course charted for us by our founding fathers . 
there have been a number of suggested alternatives to the proposal in this legislation . 
some have called for perhaps temporary appointment of the members of congress in such an emergency either through gubernatorial appointment like that in the senate , or even by a sitting member naming a successor to take the seat in the event of that member 's death . 
any of these ideas would require a constitutional amendment , which would be a change from both tradition and constitutional mandate which expressly calls again for the direct election of members of the house of representatives . 
concerns have also been expressed regarding the requirement that special elections be completed within 49 days of the speaker 's announcement of 100 existing vacancies in the house would be difficult . 
mr. chairman , before i came to congress actually , i was honored to serve as michigan 's secretary of state for 8 years with a principal responsibility of serving as that state 's chief election official , so this is an area that i do have some expertise in . 
some have argued and will argue that more time is necessary , but i disagree . 
under this legislation , states would have the option , let me repeat , the option , of eliminating the primary election and permitting political parties recognized by state law to choose their candidates . 
in turn , this would eliminate the petition requirements and the verification process that accompanies it . 
additionally , it is important for us to remember that the u.s. representative position would really be the only one on the ballot which would dramatically ease printing , programming and testing . 
furthermore , mr. chairman , the passage of the help america vote act of 2002 , hava as we commonly call it , has helped to prepare local election officials more than ever to conduct special elections . 
hava is granting federal dollars to the states in historic proportions , quite frankly , dollars that they are using to eliminate antiquated election equipment and purchasing new state-of-the-art equipment . 
states have either constructed or are moving very quickly toward construction of statewide computerized voter registration files , similar to the one that we built in michigan several years ago . 
technology actually allows for these lists to be updated daily so that a clean , up-to-date file can be printed out literally any day of the year anytime , and provided to the polling sites . 
obviously this is a fantastic election tool for any election , but particularly so for an expedited election . 
also , states are now moving toward uniformity of voting systems in their precincts . 
uniformity of election equipment in a state will enable vendors to always have a camera ready template of the ballot , and then all they literally have to do is fill in the names of the nominees for u.s. representative and go to print . 
having a uniform system will eliminate confusion amongst poll workers and further ease election preparation . 
h.r. 841 also protects the ability of military personnel and overseas citizens to participate in a special election by requiring that absentee ballots be transmitted to such voters within 15 days of the speaker 's announcement and that such absentee ballots be counted if they are received not later than 45 days after the state transmits them . 
in fact , even now the department of defense , the dod , is moving towards a program where service men and women stationed overseas can actually download their ballots via the internet . 
some will make the argument , again , that 49 days is simply not enough time for the states to prepare . 
to that argument , i would simply point out that some states today already have requirements that special elections be held in much less time than the 49-day period . 
so i believe that argument is obviously moot . 
mr. chairman , i certainly do not intend to imply that this would be a simple task . 
there is no question there is lots of hard work . 
regardless , it has been my observation and my personal experience that the fine men and women who administer our elections always rise to the occasion to complete the required work on time . 
i have no doubts that they would do so in a time of national emergency . 
while i hope , mr. chairman , that we never have to face this situation , we must nonetheless prepare for it . 
clearly it is incumbent on us to find a solution to this issue which honors the wishes and the wisdom of the founding fathers that the house of representatives remain the people 's house . 
mr. chairman , it has been said that the price of freedom is remaining ever vigilant . 
i believe passing h.r. 841 is a step in showing the enemies of freedom that america is remaining ever vigilant . 
similar legislation received over 300 votes in the last congress , and i would , again , ask my colleagues for their strong bipartisan support of this legislation . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
ms. millender-mcdonald . 
mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
first , let me congratulate the gentlewoman from michigan in joining our committee , the committee on house administration . 
she is quite an addition to the committee and we congratulate her . 
mr. chairman , i rise in opposition to h.r. 841 in its current form . 
while the bill number has changed since last year , the core problems in this legislation remain the same as in last year 's bill , h.r. 2844 . 
h.r. 841 is unworkable , unfair and undemocratic . 
it restricts the franchise and inhibits public participation in the expedited special elections it would create , an especially unfortunate development following so closely after the serious problems revealed in the aftermath of the 2004 elections . 
this bill is part of a series of actions by the majority over the last 2 years as advertised in addressing problems of congressional continuity . 
the stated objective of the legislation is to override state laws in order to hold expedited special elections within 45 days of a catastrophe which may leave more than 100 vacancies in the chamber . 
while this goal is laudable , the bill defines a problem , creates an unfunded mandate , but then provides no solution . 
this legislation dumps the problem onto the states to produce something called an `` election '' within 45 days , but without the political and democratic substance we associate with campaigns for the house of representatives . 
i want to stress that h.r. 841 has no partisan content . 
it is simply inadequate to the task of reconstituting the house in a truly democratic fashion . 
members on our side of the aisle were split almost down the middle last april in the vote on this legislation because they felt pressured to do something . 
but the majority voted for it virtually lockstep when not even its principal sponsors could explain how the bill was actually supposed to work . 
the senate , not surprisingly , never acted on it . 
so here we go again . 
h.r. 841 contains a wish list of provisions which would set impractical deadlines , ignore the rights of candidates to run and of voters to participate in elections , and create confusion in the aftermath of a national catastrophe when the country needs the stability of established constitutional processes and the legitimacy of the rule of law . 
let us look at some of the specifics of this bill . 
among the principal flaws of this legislation are the time frame is much too short for the conducting of special elections in many states . 
even states whose present laws contemplate 45 days may not cope in the aftermath of an unknown future crisis which could affect our infrastructure and communications systems nationwide . 
the house last year rejected a proposal for 75 days in which to conduct these elections . 
this year , i will offer a compromise amendment proposing 60 days , which is not a magic solution , either , but which at least provides valuable additional flexibility to the states . 
the bill represents an unfunded mandate . 
while states could conduct special elections to fill vacancies even without this bill , it eliminates their flexibility in the scheduling of elections , in the format of the elections and in the costs of elections . 
there is insufficient time for voter registration for those wishing to participate in an unscheduled , sudden election for the house . 
new voters would be blocked out of the system . 
why should we prevent full public participation when a congress , seeking to renew itself , needs the legitimacy which an open democratic system provides ? 
the bill provides no mechanism for candidates to qualify for the ballot in states which require petition gathering or other potentially time-consuming measures intended to assess the public support and credibility of potential candidates . 
states are expected to develop some faster method to accomplish these central goals of qualifying candidates to run very early before the bill 's trigger is pulled or risk missing the deadline . 
so which should it be ? 
this bill assumes that there are instant candidates out there who , upon learning of a vacancy , will decide to run without full consultation with family and friends , or with their potential parties and relevant interest groups and who can instantly arrange financing and instantly have an infrastructure in place to negotiate the campaign finance laws . 
these steps are extraordinarily difficult even in normal circumstances . 
are candidates who can make instant decisions to run and instantly finance their campaigns representative of the full range of political talent of america ? 
more importantly , are they the people we want to give a head start in gaining seats in the house ? 
i do not think we want that , mr. chairman . 
this bill also allows insufficient time to conduct primary elections in the many states which allow them for special elections . 
last year 's bill originally banned primaries entirely , but the gentleman from ohio ( mr. ney ) xz4002930 improved this bill during our committee markup by removing the prohibition on primaries . 
nevertheless , the 45-day scheme would still effectively block them in many states . 
this bill still allows insufficient time to send , receive and count absentee ballots , even in those states which will not use primaries . 
those most likely to face exclusion include americans abroad and our military personnel stationed and fighting overseas . 
mr. chairman , this bill contains no mechanism to activate its own provisions in the event the entire house membership is wiped out . 
if so , what happens next ? 
h.r. 841 deals with a practical catastrophe and a partial one , but becomes useless in the event of a total catastrophe . 
it was suggested on the house floor last year that in the circumstances that the entire house was wiped out , it would be up to the people to come together and make the determination as to the rebuilding process and how it begins . 
really ? 
then how ? 
is it not the responsibility of congress to anticipate and find solutions to problems when it enacts laws and not to rely on some vague national town meeting if the bill fails to work ? 
should we not be settling this issue right now right here in the legislation before us ? 
the 45-day provision in the bill allows insufficient time to assemble the infrastructure of elections necessary to manage elections competently and fairly . 
even in elections , under the best of circumstances , there are inevitably problems with voter registration lists , voting with provisional ballots , transmitting , receiving , and counting absentee ballots , reserving polling places and staffing the polls with voting machines and election workers . 
after a catastrophe we can add a potential breakdown in communication systems and other infrastructure , including transportation , along with the potential inability to order voting machines and ballots . 
forty-five days is simply not enough time in many states to conduct special elections , especially after a national catastrophe . 
mr. chairman , this bill represents the wrong choices of values in a democracy . 
it creates an artificial election timetable aimed at simply creating a result , and that is just members of the house . 
the american people deserve real choices , emergency or not . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
mr. chairman , i have no further requests for time , and i reserve the balance of my time . 
