National Lame Duck Day

National Lame Duck Day celebrates the ratification of the 20th amendment of the United States, an amendment added to shorten the time that the President, Senators, and Representatives spent in office after an election. During this time, especially if the representative was not reelected or is no longer eligible for reelection, they no longer have to concern themselves with the desires of their constituency.

While this only happens during certain small sections of time, significant decisions have been made during this period. What kinds of things? Homeland Security is one of the biggest results of a lame duck congress meeting, but there have also been wars started and a president impeached, all under the auspices of a lame-duck session.

Where did the term come from? In the 1700's a Lame-Duck was used to describe those stock brokers who had gauged their investments badly and could no longer pay off their debts. Later, it was extended to include unethical business-men who would find themselves bankrupted, and continue to do business anyway, even though they had no money to pay employees or suppliers.

The term has now been extended to include the representatives listed above, and to describe those sessions where the people in session are no longer beholden to those people who elected them.