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Last Updated: Friday, 23 April, 2004,
09:12 GMT 10:12 UK

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US lawmakers pass 'doomsday
bill'

The 9/11 attacks forced a major strategic
rethink

The
US House of Representatives has approved a "doomsday bill" allowing
for special elections to be held speedily in case terrorists target
Congress.

The elections would have to be held within 45 days, in the event
that 100 or more members were killed.

It is suspected that the Congress building may have been the
intended target of one of the four airliners hijacked on 11
September 2001.

The plane crashed in Pennsylvania after some passengers
challenged the captors.

"Those passengers gave their lives to give us a second chance,"
said Brian Baird, a Washington state Democrat.

Rival bid

The bill was supported by a majority of 306 representatives in
the 435-seat body.

Some members argued it was inadequate, leaving the House of
Representatives with too many empty seats for a long time in the
event that an attack causes mass fatalities.

They advocated a rival bill allowing temporary appointments, but
this would require an amendment to the US Constitution.

Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner criticised the
proposal, saying "democratic principles must be preserved at all
costs".

Constitutional amendments in the US require a two-thirds majority
in both chambers of the Congress and ratification by three-fourths
of state legislatures.

The Congress has discussed, but never acted on, the continuity
question during the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s.

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