Twenty-one years ago, the terrorists who killed thousands of innocents also sought to undermine America’s institutions. One hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon. Brave passengers of another plane stormed the cockpit and prevented the plane from reaching its intended target, the US Capitol.

The death and destruction of 9/11 was the great tragedy of our generation. How much worse it might have been if top leadership of the Pentagon were killed, perhaps the president and other members of the line or succession, and if Congress had ceased to function in the aftermath.

In this way, 9/11 should have served as a wakeup call for America, impelling us to examine our continuity of government plans, to ensure that our institutions are able to rebuild themselves even after a catastrophic attack, and to send a message to potential enemies that American leadership cannot be decapitated or thrown into chaos or confusion.

Unfortunately, we have not done enough in these 21 years to ensure that our key institutions and leaders of government will continue in the aftermath of an attack. In particular, the institution of Congress, which was a direct target of the hijackers of United Flight 93, is vulnerable to attacks that could kill or incapacitate many of its members.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the Continuity of Government Commission was formed. Its first order of business was ensuring the continuity of Congress. Without significant action over these years, and with other continuity threats such as a global pandemic, the commission was reconstituted and issued recommendations this spring.

The recommendations of the two commissions differ slightly, but they agree on the core problem and the key recommendations. If an attack, pandemic, or other event killed or incapacitated half of the House of Representatives, Congress would likely not be able to function for months, or might try to get by in an unconstitutional and unrepresentative way, calling into question its legitimacy.

The House of Representatives has only one way of replacing deceased members: special elections, taking an average of four months to fill a sudden vacancy. In addition, the Constitution specifies that a quorum of the House and the Senate is a majority of each body. If 220 members died suddenly, then there would be no way to replace them with special elections for months, and they would be short of the quorum. They could not conduct business, pass laws, confirm a new vice president, conduct oversight, or check or support a president. In short, an attack would rob us of a core constitutional institution at the greatest time of need.

Some argue that the House could muddle through with less than a majority present and bend constitutional rules for the sake of getting by. But that questionable tack might call into question the very legitimacy of Congress. What if only 10 members of the House were alive and well after an attack? Would anyone want a group of 10 members—perhaps of one party—representing a small slice of the populace to make the most important decisions of the nation in its time of greatest need?

The solution to this problem is a constitutional amendment to allow replacement members to fill vacant seats temporarily until special elections could take place. Our commission recommended that members of Congress should designate successors who would take over for that member in the case of the members’ death. With this solution in place, similar to the provision that allows governors to appoint temporary replacements to open Senate seats, the House of Representatives could function with a full membership within days of a catastrophic event.

Other issues such as the incapacitation or illness of members and senators could also prevent Congress from meeting together. In any case, Congress should be able to function with close to full membership soon after a crisis. Our adversaries would like nothing better than to see our key institutions face months of inaction, confusion, or legitimacy issues.

Let us work to address these issues so that another anniversary of 9/11 does not pass without addressing the continuity of Congress.

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