Action is in the tradition of our forebears.-Since adoption of the "Bill of Rights"-the first 10 amendments to our Constitution-9 of the 14 subsequent amendments have related directly either to the offices of the Presidency and Vice-Presidency or to assuring the responsiveness of our voting processes to the will of the people. As long ago as 1804 and as recently as 1964, Americans have amended their Constitution in striving for its greater perfection in these most sensitive and critical areas.

I believe it is the strong and overriding will of the people today that we should act now to eliminate these unhappy possibilities inherent in our system as it now exists. Likewise, I believe it is the concensus of an overwhelming majority of the Congress-without thought of partisanship that effective action be taken promptly. I am, accordingly, addressing this communication to both Houses to ask that this prevailing will be translated into action which would permit the people, through the process of constitutional amendment, to overcome these omissions so clearly evident in our system.

I. PRESIDENTIAL INABILITY

Our Constitution clearly prescribes the order of procedure for assuring continuity in the Office of the Presidency in the event of the death of the incumbent. These provisions have met their tragic tests successfully. Our system, unlike many others, has never experienced the catastrophe of disputed succession or the chaos of uncertain command.

Our stability is, nonetheless, more superficial than sure. While we are prepared for the possibility of a President's death, we are all but defenseless against the probability of a President's incapacity by injury, illness, senility, or other affliction. A nation bearing the responsibilities we are privileged to bear for our own security-and the security of the free world-cannot justify the appalling gamble of entrusting its security to the immobilized hands or uncomprehending mind of a Commander in Chief unable to command.

On September 29, 1964, the Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 139, proposing a constitutional amendment to deal with this perplexing question of Presidential disability-as well as the question, which I shall discuss below, of filing vacancies in the office of Vice President. The same measure has been introduced in this Congress as Senate Joint Resolution 1 and House Joint Resolution 1. The provisions of these measures have been carefully considered and are the product of many of our finest constitutional and legal minds. Believing, as I do, that Senate Joint Resolution 1 and House Joint Resolution 1 would responsibly meet the pressing need I have outlined, I urge the Congress to approve them forthwith for submission to ratification by the States.

II. VACANCY IN THE OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

Indelible personal experience has impressed upon me the indisputable logic and imperative necessity of assuring that the Second Office of our system shall like the First Office, be at all times occupied by an incumbent who is able and who is ready to assume the powers and duties of the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief.

In our history, to this point, the office of the Presidency has never devolved below the first clearly prescribed step of constitutional succession. In moments of need, there has always been a Vice President, yet Vice Presidents are no less mortal than President. Seven men have died in the office and one has resignedin addition to the eight who left the office vacant to succeed to the Presidency. We recognized long ago the necessity of assuring automatic succession in the absence of a Vice President. Various statutes have been enacted at various times prescribing orders of succession from among either the presiding officers of the Houses of Congress or the heads of executive departments who, together, comprise the traditional Cabinet of the President. In these times, such orders of succession are no substitute for an office of succession.

Since the last order of succession was prescribed by the Congress in 1947, the office of the Vice Presidency has undergone the most significant transformation and enlargement of duties in its history.

Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy have successively expanded the role of the Vice President, even as I expect to do in this administration.

Once only an appendage, the office of Vice President is an integral part of the chain of command and its occupancy on a full-time basis is imperative.

For this reason, I most strongly endorse the objective of both Senate Joint Resolution 1 and House Joint Resolution 1 in providing that whenever there is a vacancy in the office of Vice President, provision shall exist for that office to be filled with a person qualified to succeed to the Presidency.

III. REFORM OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SYSTEM

We believe that the people should elect their President and Vice President. One of the earliest amendments to our Constitution was submitted and ratified in response to the unhappy experience of an electoral college stalemate which jeopardized this principle. Today there lurks in the electoral college system the ever-present possibility that electors may substitute their own will for the will of the people. I believe that possibility should be foreclosed.

Our present system of computing and awarding electoral votes by States is an essential counterpart of our Federal system and the provisions of our Constitution which recognize and maintain our Nation as a union of States. It supports the two-party system which has served our Nation well. I believe this system should be retained. But it is imperative that the electoral votes of a State be cast for those persons who receive the greatest number of votes for President and Vice President-and for no one else.

At the same time, I believe we should eliminate the omission in our present system which leaves the continuity of the offices of President and Vice President unprotected if the persons receiving a majority of the electoral votes for either or both of these offices should die after the election in November and before the inauguration of the President.

Electors are now legally free to choose the President without regard to the outcome of the election. I believe that if the President-elect dies under these circumstances, our laws should provide that the Vice-President-elect should become President when the new term begins. Conversely, if death should come to the Vice-President-elect during this interim, I believe the President-elect should, upon taking office, be required to follow the procedures otherwise prescribed for filling the unexpired term of the Vice President. If both should die or become unable to serve in this interim, I believe the Congress should be made responsible for providing the method of selecting officials for both positions. I am transmitting herewith a draft amendment to the Constitution to resolve these problems.

Favorable action by the Congress on the measures here recommended will, I believe, assure the orderly continuity in the Presidency that is imperative to the success and stability of our system. Action on these measures now will allay future anxiety among our own people-and among the peoples of the world-in the event senseless tragedy or unforeseeable disability should strike again at either or both of the principal offices of our constitutional system. If we act now, without undue delay, we shall have moved closer to achieving perfection of the great constitutional document on which the strength and success of our system have rested for nearly two centuries.

THE WHITE HOUSE, January 28, 1965.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON.

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to the election of the President and Vice President

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 Consitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States:

ARTICLE

"SECTION 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during a term of four years, and together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected as provided in this Constitution. No person constitutionally ineligible for the office of President shall be eligible for that of Vice President of the United States.

"Each State shall be entitled to cast for President and Vice President a number of electoral votes equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which such State may entitled in the Congress. Such electoral votes shall be cast, in the manner provided by section 2 of this article, upon the basis of an

election in which the people of such State shall cast their votes for President and for Vice President. The voters in each State in any such election shall have the qualifications requisite for persons voting for members of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.

"The Congress shall determine the time of such election, which shall be the same throughout the United States. Until otherwise determined by the Congress, such election shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November of the year preceding the year in which the regular term of the President is to begin.

"SEC. 2. In such election within any State,, each voter by one ballot shall cast his vote for President and his vote for Vice President. The name of any person may be placed upon any ballot for President or for Vice President only with the consent of such person. The electoral votes which each State is entitled to cast for President and for Vice President shall be cast for the persons who in such election in that State receive the greatest number of votes for President and Vice President, respectively, except that if the person for whom any State casts its electoral votes for President is an inhabitant of that State, its electoral votes for Vice President shall be cast for the person not an inhabitant of that State who receives the greatest number of votes for Vice President.

"Within forty-five days after the election, or at such time as the Congress shall direct, the official custodian of the election returns of each State shall prepare, sign, certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate, a list of all persons for whom votes were cast for President and a separate list of all persons for whom votes were cast for Vice President. Upon each such list there shall be entered the number of votes cast for each person whose name appears thereon, the total number of votes cast for all such persons, and the name of the person for whom the electoral votes such State are cast.

"SEC. 3. On the 6th day of January following the election, unless the Congress by law appoints a different day not earlier than the 4th day of January and not later than the 10th day of January, the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the electoral votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, and the person having the greatest number of votes for Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electoral votes. If no person has a majority of the whole number of electoral votes for President or Vice President, then from the persons not exceeding three, having the highest number of electoral votes for such office, the Senate and the House of Representatives sitting in joint session shall choose such officer immediately by ballot. The vote of each Member of each House shall be publicly announced and recorded. A quorum for this purpose shall consist of three-fourths of the whole number of the Senators and Representatives, and the person receiving the greatest number of votes shall be chosen.

"SEC. 4. If, at the time fixed for the counting of the electoral votes as provided in section 3, the presidential candidate who would have been entitled to receive a majority of the electoral votes for President has died, the vice presidential candidate who is entitled to receive the majority of the electoral votes for Vice President shall become President-elect.

"SEC. 5. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate and House of Representatives may choose a President or a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of death of both the presidential and vice presidential candidates who, except for their death, would have been entitled to receive a majority of the electoral votes for President and for Vice President.

"SEC. 6. The first, second, third, and fourth paragraphs of section 1, article II, of the Constitution, the twelfth article of amendment to the Constitution, and section 4 of the twentieth article of amendment to the Constitution, are hereby repealed.

"SEC. 7. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress."

(Proposed bills H.J. Res. 1, H.J. Res. 3, H.J. Res. 29, H.J. Res. 33, H.J. Res. 41, H.J. Res. 53, H.J. Res. 67, H.J. Res. 118, H.J. Res. 119, H.J. Res. 129, H.J. Res. 139, H.J. Res. 140, H.J. Res. 143, H.J. Res. 154, H.J. Res. 158, H.J. Res. 183, H.J. Res. 219, H.J. Res. 220, H.J. Res. 224, H.J. Res. 235, H.J. Res. 236, H.J. Res. 239, H.J. Res. 240, H.J. Res. 248, H.J. Res. 250, H.J. Res. 254, H.J. Res. 264, H.J. Res. 265, H.J. Res. 274, H.J. Res. 280, H.J. Res. 293, H.J. Res. 294, H.J. Res. 302, H.J. Res. 310, H.J. Res. 312, H.J. Res. 329, H.R. 836, and H.R. 3792 are as follows:)

[H.J. Res. 1, 89th Cong., 1st sess.]

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to succession to the Presidency and Vice Presidency and to cases where the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office

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 from the date of its submission by the Congress :

"ARTICLE

"SECTION 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

"SEC. 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

"SEC. 3. If the President declares in writing that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

"SEC. 4. If the President does not so declare, and the Vice President with the written concurrence of a majority of the heads of the executive departments or such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmits to the Congress his written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

"SEC. 5. Whenever the President transmits to the Congress his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President, with the written concurrence of a majority of the heads of the executive departments or such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmits within two days to the Congress his written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall immediately decide the issue. If the Congress determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office."

[H.J. Res. 3, 89th Cong., 1st sess.]

JOINT RESOLUTION To propose an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to the succession to the Presidency and Vice Presidency and to cases where the President in unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office

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 from the date of its submission by the Congress:

"ARTICLE

"SECTION 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

"SEC. 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall promptly nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

"SEC. 3. If the President declares in writing that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

"SEC. 4. If the President does not so declare, and the Vice President with the written concurrence of a majority of the heads of the executive departments or such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmits to the Congress his written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the discharge of the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

"SEC. 5. Whenever the President makes a public announcement in writing that his inability has terminated, he shall resume the discharge of the powers and duties of his office on the second day of making such announcement, or at such earlier time after such announcement as he or the Vice President may determine, except that if the Vice President with the written concurrence of the majority of the heads of the executive departments in office at the time of such announcement or such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmits to the Congress his written declaration that the President's inability has not terminated, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. If the Congress, within ten days after receipt of the Vice President's written declaration, determines by two-thirds of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise the President shall resume the discharge of the powers and duties of his office."

[H.J. Res. 29, 89th Cong., 1st sess.]

JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to succession to the Presidency and Vice Presidency and to cases where the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office

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 from the date of its submission by the Congress:

"ARTICLE

"SECTION 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.

"SEC. 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

"SEC. 3. If the President declares in writing that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

"SEC. 4. If the President does not so declare, and the Vice President with the written concurrence of a majority of the heads of the executive departments or such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmits to the Congress his written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

"SEC. 5. Whenever the President transmits to the Congress his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President, with the written concurrence of a majority of the heads of the executive departments or such other body as Congress may by law