3 U.S.C. § 16 — Same; seats for officers and Members of two Houses in joint session
submitted 78 years ago by ch. 644 to r/title-3-THE-PRESIDENT · 228 words · no verdicts yet
This section sets exact seating for the joint session that counts electoral votes. The session cannot end until the count and result are finished. Each House can only pause briefly, and just once, if a dispute comes up.
At such joint session of the two Houses seats shall be provided as follows: For the President of the Senate, the Speaker’s chair; for the Speaker, immediately upon his left; the Senators, in the body of the Hall upon the right of the presiding officer; for the Representatives, in the body of the Hall not provided for the Senators; for the tellers, Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House of Representatives, at the Clerk’s desk; for the other officers of the two Houses, in front of the Clerk’s desk and upon each side of the Speaker’s platform. Such joint session shall not be dissolved until the count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result declared; and no recess shall be taken unless a question shall have arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or otherwise under this subchapter, in which case it shall be competent for either House, acting separately, in the manner hereinbefore provided, to direct a recess of such House not beyond the next calendar day, Sunday excepted, at the hour of 10 o’clock in the forenoon. But if the counting of the electoral votes and the declaration of the result shall not have been completed before the fifth calendar day next after such first session of the two Houses, no further or other recess shall be taken by either House.
Source credit: (June 25, 1948, ch. 644, 62 Stat. 676; Pub. L. 117–328, div. P, title I, § 110(c)(1), Dec. 29, 2022, 136 Stat. 5240.)
- 1948Enacted · Act of June 25, 1948, ch. 644 · 62 Stat. 676
- 2022Amended · Pub. L. 117-328 · 136 Stat. 5240
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 644 on 1948-06-25.
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