The Twentieth Amendment

The Text

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

What It Says

Presidential terms end at noon on January 20 and congressional terms on January 3. Congress must meet at least once a year.

What It Protects Against

The lame duck gap. Under the original calendar, defeated officeholders retained power for four months after the election that removed them, a delay built for eighteenth-century travel and obsolete long before it was fixed.

Protocol Media reading. Not sourced to a ratification-era document.

Problem Addressed

The original March inauguration date reflected the time required to count votes and travel to the capital. By the twentieth century it left rejected officials governing for a third of a year.