‘This place is not functioning’ – Republicans line up behind term limits for Congress
Nothing, Rep. George Holding says, makes his congressional colleagues focus more than a deadline. So Holding wants to give them one for their jobs.
Holding, a Raleigh Republican, filed a resolution last week seeking a constitutional amendment limiting the terms of representatives and senators to 12 years in each chamber. Holding’s resolution is one of at least nine filed by Republicans in the first weeks of the new Congress hoping to alter the constitution to restrict the terms of representatives and senators.
“The problem here that we’re trying to address is folks don’t have a limited horizon. They don’t have a deadline. If you watch Washington, things are always done on a deadline. Whether it’s a cliff or expiration date, that’s when things get done,” Holding said in an interview with The News & Observer. “That would keep people focused and it would remove the folks who’ve kind of lost track and are more about staying in office rather than about being effective.”
Several other Republicans in North Carolina’s delegation have signed onto to similar bills.
Critics contend that term limits, especially short ones, could give unelected people on the Hill — like lobbyists and staff members — more power than elected officials. But they are popular among the public. A February 2018 poll found that 82 percent of Americans back term limits for Congress.
With public approval of Congress hovering near 20 percent and a partial government shutdown now the longest in history, lawmakers can easily back popular term limits — especially given the long odds that any proposal makes it through the amendment process.
The Constitution was last amended in 1992 (deferring congressional pay changes until the next Congress) and before that 1971 (setting the voting age at 18).
Holding’s bill, like most of the others, would not be retroactive, meaning any member’s service time would begin after the amendment was ratified.
Reps. Mark Meadows, Ted Budd and Richard Hudson are co-sponsors for Rep. Francis Rooney’s term limits measure in the House. It calls for a maximum of three terms in the House and two terms in the Senate.
Sen. Thom Tillis is one of seven co-sponsors on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s proposal to limit representatives to three two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms.
“It is past time for members of Congress to amend the Constitution and impose long-needed term limits on its members,” Tillis said in a statement.
While the proposals vary in specifics — one calls for four terms in the House, one calls for 12 years total in Congress, one would just give Congress the power to set term limits without a specific number — they share a common goal: limiting the time people can serve in D.C.
President Donald Trump backed congressional term limits last year.
“I recently had a terrific meeting with a bipartisan group of freshman lawmakers who feel very strongly in favor of Congressional term limits. I gave them my full support and endorsement for their efforts. #DrainTheSwamp,” he tweeted on April 30, 2018.
It is certainly not a new idea. Term limits were proposed at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. More recently, House Republicans included a call for term limits in their 1994 Contract with America. At least 12 term limit measures were introduced last Congress. Holding, who co-sponsored similar bills in the past, ran television ads about term limits during his general election campaign last year.
“Washington politics is one mess after another. Term limits would help. George Holding agrees,” the ad said.
But it requires more than simple congressional action.
A constitutional amendment is necessary because of a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down an Arkansas state constitutional amendment that imposed term limits on Congress. The Court found, in a 5-4 decision, that “in the absence of a constitutional amendment, neither states nor Congress may limit the number of terms that members of Congress can serve,” according to The New York Times’ story on the ruling.
”Any such change must come not by legislation adopted either by Congress or by an individual State, but rather — as have other important changes in the electoral process — through the Amendment procedures set forth in Article V. The Framers decided that the qualifications for service in the Congress of the United States be fixed in the Constitution and be uniform throughout the Nation,” the court wrote.
The 22nd Amendment added term limits to the presidency. It was passed in Congress in 1947 and ratified in 1951. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times, serving as president from March 1933 until his death in April 1945.
A 2018 Brookings Institute article contends term limits would hurt by limiting voters’ choice, decreasing congressional capacity, limiting incentive for lawmakers to gain policy knowledge, kicking out effective lawmakers and doing little to minimize corrupt behavior or slow the revolving door.
Holding, 50, said he shared concerns about very short term limits.
“A 12-year term limit gives you plenty of time to become competent on issues, be effective and not be controlled by the staff because they have all the knowledge,” he said.
Holding said he has spoken with some Democrats, who hold the majority in the House, about co-sponsoring his bill, though none have signed on. No Democrats are listed as co-sponsors on any of the measures introduced this year, though former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke sponsored a term limits proposal last Congress.
“People on both sides of the aisle are frustrated with what’s going on and things are broken beyond anybody’s comprehension,” said Holding, who served as a Capitol Hill staffer in the late 1980s. “This place is not functioning.”
How long have they served?
North Carolina congressional delegation
Sen. Richard Burr, Republican: Served five terms in the U.S. House (1995-2005); in his third term in U.S. Senate (2005-present)
Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican: In his first term in the U.S. Senate (2015-present)
1st Congressional District: Rep. G.K. Butterfield, Democrat: In his ninth term (eighth full) in the U.S. House (2004-present)
2nd: Rep. George Holding, Republican: In his fourth term in the U.S. House (2013-present)
3rd: Rep. Walter B. Jones, Republican: In his 13th term in the U.S. House (1995-present)
4th: Rep. David E. Price, Democrat: In his 16th term in the U.S. House (1987-1995, 1997-present)
5th: Rep. Virginia Foxx, Republican: In her eighth term in the U.S. House (2005-present)
6th: Rep. Mark Walker, Republican: In his third term in the U.S. House (2015-present)
7th: Rep. David Rouzer, Republican: In his third term in the U.S. House (2015-present)
8th: Rep. Richard Hudson, Republican: In his fourth term in the U.S. House (2013-present)
9th: Vacant
10th: Rep. Patrick McHenry, Republican: In his eighth term in the U.S. House (2005-present)
11th: Rep. Mark Meadows, Republican: In his fourth term in the U.S. House (2013-present)
12th: Rep. Alma Adams, Democrat: In her fourth term (third full) in the U.S. House (2014-present)
13th: Rep. Ted Budd, Republican: In his second term in the U.S. House (2017-present)
This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 5:20 PM with the headline "‘This place is not functioning’ – Republicans line up behind term limits for Congress."
