Has anybody heard of this provision?

[Independent_Liberal]

I was curious if anybody has heard of this recent bill that was in the House. It doesn't make any sense. It's kind of disturbing to say the least.

Source: http://suetheterrorists.net/page23.html

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Congress passes `doomsday' plan

Boston Herald | January 9, 2005
By Noelle Straub
WASHINGTON - With no fanfare, the U.S. House has passed a controversial doomsday provision that would allow a handful of lawmakers to run Congress if a terrorist attack or major disaster killed or incapacitated large numbers of congressmen.

"I think (the new rule) is terrible in a whole host of ways - first, I think it's unconstitutional,'' said Norm Ornstein, a counselor to the independent Continuity of Government Commission, a bipartisan panel created to study the issue. "It's a very foolish thing to do, I believe, and the way in which it was done was more foolish.''

But supporters say the rule provides a stopgap measure to allow the government to continue functioning at a time of national crisis.

GOP House leaders pushed the provision as part of a larger rules package that drew attention instead for its proposed ethics changes, most of which were dropped.

Usually, 218 lawmakers - a majority of the 435 members of Congress - are required to conduct House business, such as passing laws or declaring war.

But under the new rule, a majority of living congressmen no longer will be needed to do business under "catastrophic circumstances.''

Instead, a majority of the congressmen able to show up at the House would be enough to conduct business, conceivably a dozen lawmakers or less.

The House speaker would announce the number after a report by the House Sergeant at Arms. Any lawmaker unable to make it to the chamber would effectively not be counted as a congressman.

The circumstances include "natural disaster, attack, contagion or similar calamity rendering Representatives incapable of attending the proceedings of the House.''

The House could be run by a small number of lawmakers for months, because House vacancies must be filled by special elections. Governors can make temporary appointments to the Senate.

Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.), one of few lawmakers active on the issue, argued the rule change contradicts the U.S. Constitution, which states that "a majority of each (House) shall constitute a quorum to do business.

"Changing what constitutes a quorum in this way would allow less than a dozen lawmakers to declare war on another nation,'' Baird said.

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I also found the following below (same source):

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Major exercises set for NORAD and USNORTHCOM

August 2nd 2004

By: NORAD and USNORTHCOM Public Affairs



Two major exercises, Amalgam Virgo 04 (AV04) & Determined Promise 04 (DP04), kick off this week for the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command to test the commands' response to terrorist events on a national, state, and local level.

AV04 will evaluate NORAD in both live-fly and simulated exercises with a focus on air piracy, airborne terrorism, and cruise missile/ unmanned aerial vehicle defense. AV04 activities will take place in eastern and western Canada, Oregon, Southern California and the Gulf of Mexico/ Florida panhandle.

DP04 will test USNORTHCOM's ability to assist civil and federal authorities in a coordinated response to simulated chemical, radiological, and explosive hazards, conducted in California and Virginia.

The exercises will involve more than 4,000 Canadian and U.S. military personnel in three U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The Virginia National Guard, under control of Governor Mark Warner, will deploy 303 personnel to the Hampton Roads/ Norfolk area. The California National Guard, under the control of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, will deploy 52 personnel to the Los Angeles, Ventura County and San Diego area.

The Southern California portion of DP-04 involves a simulated massive explosion of a radiological dispersion device in the Port of Los Angeles, resulting in casualties and thousands of resident exposures to the unknown substance "cloud," among several other events. State and federal partners, including the FBI, TSA, DoD, Department of Energy, the California National Guard Civil Support Teams, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will participate in the full-scale exercise.

In Virginia, the exercise will involve federal, state and local teams as well as those in the private sector. The exercise will test the abilities of Virginia's emergency managers and first responders to handle more than 12,000 deaths and 62,000 serious injuries arising from simultaneous simulated "terrorist" attacks including a cruise ship, a major auto race, a bridge and two tunnels in Hampton Roads, a large suburban Richmond shopping complex and a Richmond area elementary school.

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I really don't know what this means. Pretty weird, though.