George bags the lame duck

(This week, on Friday. we will again honor McCook's most famous son, with the George Norris Breakfast at McCook's Senior Center. This breakfast is always a key part of the annual Heritage Days Celebration. This year we are extremely fortunate to have McCook native, Chuck Peek as our featured speaker. Rev. Peek has been here before and delighted his audience with his wit and knowledge of McCook history, and we look forward to more of the same this year. The event is sponsored by the George W. Norris Foundation, and serves to remind us of some of the noteworthy things that Sen. Norris accomplished for Nebraska and the nation. This seems like an appropriate time to take note of one of these achievements.)

The term Lame-Duck goes back to the early 1880s, when the term was used to describe business men with financial troubles, who resembled wounded game birds. The term began to be used to describe politicians who had lost an election (or decided not to run), but still retained their power to make laws for a period of time after their defeat. A Lame Duck session takes place after each election, when outgoing members still have the power to approve laws and in the case of the Senate, approve appointments from the President. Since the 20th Amendment became the law of the land during the FDR Administration, that session lasts from mid-November (after an election) till January 3rd, when the new Congress begins. Formerly this session lasted from December 1st, when Congress reconvened after an election and lasted until March 4th, when the new Congress assumed office. This relatively long period of time between the election and the new Congress proved to be highly disadvantageous in a number of instances.

For example: After Abraham Lincoln's election to the office of President, in 1860, he was powerless to act on the seceding of seven Southern States from the Union. By the time Lincoln was sworn in as President in March of 1861 those seven states had formed their own Confederate States of America, thus setting the course for the great Civil War, which droned on until 1865, Lincoln's entire Presidency.

Even with the shortened Lame-Duck sessions, which took effect in 1935, there have been important acts, which were only made possible by a Lame-Duck Congress. 1. In 1940, during the Lame-Duck Session Congress met to address the threat of an impending WW II. 2. In 1950 Chinese troops entered the Korean War during a Lame-Duck sessions. 3. In 1965 the Senate met during a Lame-Duck session to consider impeaching Sen. McCarthy. 4. After Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 election, and before he took office, Congress found a way to pass important budget resolutions. 5. And in 1998, during a Lame-Duck session, a Republican controlled House of Representatives pushed through the impeachment resolution against President Bill Clinton. All of these cases might have turned out differently had they occurred during a regular session of Congress.

By the time George Norris entered the Senate in 1913 he had already earned considerable respect in Washington as a fellow who gets thing done, with his bringing down of Speaker Canon in the House of Representatives and his work in forming the Progressive Republican League. Theodore Roosevelt had counted on his help when he ran for President as a third party candidate on the Progressive "Bull Moose" ticket. Instead, Norris ran for the US Senate (and won) as a regular Republican.

Sen. Norris first became involved in the matter of lengthy Lame-Duck sessions in 1922. In that year the Congressional campaigns largely revolved around the question of subsidies to the ship building industry. Within Congress there was a formidable bloc of supporters for these ship subsidies. That support was in sharp contrast to most American voters, who were opposed to these subsidies and made their wishes known by voting in Congressmen who were against the subsidies. When election results came in the voters had spoken emphatically. However, President Harding supported the ship subsidies and called a special session of Congress in November 1922 for the purpose of pushing through the subsidies by members of the old Congress, before March 4th 1923.

Sen. Thaddeus Caraway, of Arkansas, introduced legislation reminding the Congress that the people had voiced their wishes "loud and clear" that the subsidies should be removed, and that members of the Senate and House of Representatives who had been defeated and would leave office on March 4th, should refrain from voting in opposition to the voters' wishes. Further, Committee Chairmen not in sympathy with the people's wishes should resign.

Sen. Caraway was speaking on behalf of the Arkansas Farmers Union, and asked that his resolution be referred to the Committee on Forestry and Agriculture, where it came to the attention of the Chairman of that Committee, one George W. Norris. Sen. Caraway's motion was greeted with laughter in the Senate, since ordinarily a measure of this type would be referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Nevertheless, Sen. Caraway's resolution did go to Norris' Committee, and Sen. Norris took up the cause with the tenacity of a bulldog.

Norris found that Sen Caraway's resolution cut the time of the Lame-Duck session from March 4th to January 3rd. It called for members of the Senate and House who had been defeated to refrain from voting on legislation that had been repudiated by the people in a general election. Chairmen not in sympathy with the people's wishes should resign.

Sen. Norris found that Caraway had hit upon "a condition that had been subject to grave abuses"---the enactment of legislation by men who had been defeated for election were able to vote on that legislation, while their rightful elected successors, representing the sentiments of their constituents were unable to take office, and were helpless to prevent that legislation from passing. Norris immediately became thoroughly embroiled in that problem.

Sen Norris had become famous in 1910 (while in the House of Representatives) for reforming House rules and believed firmly in the merits of reforms designed to simplify government, and to remove procedures, which prevented it from operating efficiently. As he formulated this new Amendment (which became the 20th Amendment), he also developed a plan for eliminating the Electoral College and allowed the President to be elected directly.

Sen. Norris soon found that the House and The Speaker of the House wanted the proposed ship subsidies kept intact, and felt that the defeated House members of the President's party might win Presidential patronage and remain in Public Service a little longer. Norris' Bill met with approval in the Senate, but unfortunately, through skillful parliamentary maneuvers, his bill was ignored in the House and died through lack of action.

However, Sen. Norris was a patient man. He bided his time. Over the next 10 years he reintroduced his proposed Amendment six times. Each time it was voted down, but gradually the mood of the country began to change. Finally, in 1930, a new, Democrat controlled Congress was elected, and a new Speaker of the House, John Garner of Texas, was installed. When the legislation was introduced yet again it won approval.

Three-fourths of the states must ratify an Amendment before it can become law and the process can be lengthy, but for this Amendment it went quite quickly. Virginia was the first state to ratify the 20th Amendment on March 4, 1932, and less than a year later, Missouri became the last, on January 23, 1933, just over one month before the time that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and VP John Nance Garner took office beginning the era of the New Deal, on Mar. 4th 1933.

George Norris wrote in his autobiography, "I was gratified by its rapid acceptance."

The antiquated long Lame-Duck session of Congress was no more. George's persistence had paid off. He had bagged his Lame-Duck at last.

Remember the Prayer Breakfast, 7 a.m. at the Senior Center on Friday, Sept. 27th, sponsored by the George W. Norris Foundation. Good food, good music, an outstanding featured speaker, Chuck Peek, a McCook High School graduate. You'll be glad you came.

Source: Gazette Centennial Edition, The 20th Amendment, Geo. Norris Biography