WASHINGTON, Oct 5: Aspirants to the Oval Office would no longer have to be native-born Americans, if a bill discussed on Tuesday in Congress becomes law.
A hearing to consider the "Natural Born Citizen Act" showed broad congressional support among Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who called current restrictions "outdated."
"The decision to include the natural-born citizen requirement in our Constitution was largely driven by the concern over 200 years ago that a European monarch might be imported to rule the United States," said Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the legislation's main backer.
"This restriction has become an anachronism that is decidedly un-American," the Utah Republican said. His bill seeks to amend the US Constitution, which currently requires that the president and vice president be native-born Americans who have resided on US soil for at least 14 years prior to taking office.
"I believe it is the American dream to have the ability to run for president," said Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan, one of several lawmakers to testify at the hearing.
"The distinction between natural-born and foreign-born citizens is unique, unwarranted and antiquated," he declared. The Senate bill would allow a naturalized American who has been a citizen for at least 20 years to assume the US presidency; similar legislation in the House of Representatives would set the threshold at 35 years.
Lawmakers, particularly those from states with large immigrant populations, said their constituents have clamored for a change in current law, which also bars from the Oval Office children born in foreign countries who have been adopted by US citizens.
"Every citizen of this country would like to be able to look in their child's room at night and believe that one day, they, too, can grow up to be president," Conyers said.
The law currently excludes a number of notable politicians from running for the White House, including California's Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born in Graz, Austria.
Schwarzenegger arrived in the United States as a 21-year-old in 1968 to pursue a career as a bodybuilder and to seek fame as a Hollywood actor. He became a permanent resident in 1974 and a US citizen in 1983.
Jennifer Granholm, the Democratic governor of Michigan - who, like Schwarzenegger, is deemed by her party to be a rising star with White House potential - was born in Canada, and therefore is also ineligible for a White House run.
Hatch noted that no citizenship restrictions apply to other US government officials, including those serving in the Senate, House of Representatives, Supreme Court and the president's cabinet.
However, despite apparent broad support in the US legislature for amending the Constitution, doing so is a complicated affair, requiring two-thirds approval by both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the country's 50 states. -AFP