Huelsman 1

John Huelsman
Lisa Tyler
English 1201
27 October 2016

Congressional Term Limits

America is the ultimate beacon of democracy, but even its system is not perfect. There are flaws
to be found in plenty of the government's workings, but since its inception there have existed checks and
balances built into its very structure to limit its powers and those of the elected officials, or prevent one
part or person from overpowering the others. One of the greatest tools to emerge from this defense
against tyranny is a limitation on the number of terms someone can serve in many seats of government.
We have not always had said limitations in place everywhere, and in fact, there are seats still today that
do not have term limitations. One of the most crucial areas of American politics is lacking these
limitations: Congress. The Senate and House of Representatives, or Congress to refer to them both, have
never had an official amendment to the U.S. Constitution regarding the number of terms they are
allowed to serve. The United States needs to impose term limits on the members of Congress because it
is a fundamental part of democracy, it will lessen the influence of lobbying on our politics, and prevents
members from spending so much time on re-election and more time working on issues at hand in the
country.
Congress is a reference to both the U.S. Senate, composed of one-hundred Senators (two from
each state) who serve terms six years in length, and the 435 Representatives in the House of
Representatives, of which the amount of Representatives per state are appointed according to state

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population and serve terms which are two years in length. Any other use of the term "Congress" is not
relevant to the thesis of this essay. Members of the House introduce new ideas for laws which are voted
on by all members of Congress which must be passed by a majority in both the House and Senate. If
passed in Congress, a bill is sent to the President to be approved or vetoed, but not only this, Congress
has the power to override even a veto from the president, which was actually done even recently.
Congress also controls the treasury, and constructs the budget for the country. There are many
committees formed within Congress, who are knowledgeable in different areas, and consult outside
experts on matters. Committees and subcommittees perform investigations into politics and other
branches, and even have the power to impeach the President. Congress is a vital organ to the U.S.
government, and as such should always remain under scrutiny to perform, in the true democratic sense,
for the people they represent.
Even though the first President of the United States set an unofficial term limit on Presidency by
stepping down voluntarily after just two terms, and by extension set an example of limitation on terms to
various state and local politicians now doubt, there has never been an official limit on the number of
terms a Representative of the House or a Senator can serve. Not until 1951 was the 22nd amendment
passed which limited a President to two terms (Congressional Term Limits 104-158). Such an
amendment has never been passed in regards to Congressional term limits, though it has been proposed,
such as in 1995, and once more in 1997 (Sabato 46).
With that being said, the idea of limitation on terms has been around since before the
Constitution was even drafted. The plan which preceded the Constitution and acted as its blueprint, The

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Virginia Plan, included such limitations, though none were included in the final draft of the Constitution
(Congressional Term Limits 104-158). Again in 1781, with the Articles of Confederation a proposal for
term limits barring a House Representative from serving two terms in a row was submitted, but
ultimately did not make the final amendments due to the extreme difficulty of governing the country at
the time and the low priority this proposition took (Sabato 43).
Fast forward more than two centuries, and the 1990s saw a wave of frustration in our politicians
boil into many citizen initiatives to impose term limits on their State Legislators -- one of thousands of
people who carry out the law-making process at the state level, and who can be employed by or work
closely with Congress to help create laws and ideas -- and Representatives. Oklahoma became the first
State to impose term limits on their Legislators, followed by Colorado, and California shortly after,
beginning a trend that would spread throughout the States in the following years (Greenberg).
By the year 2000, fifteen states (Maine, California, Colorado, Ohio, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida,
South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Louisiana, Nevada) had enacted term
limits for their state Legislators or Representatives in some way or another, and that does not include the
six states (Idaho, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming) that repealed the decision by no
later than 2004 (National Conference of State Legislators). The details of these initiatives are illustrated
more easily in a chart provided below, courtesy of The National Conference of State Legislatures.

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House
State

Senate

Year
Enacted

Limit

Year of
Impact

Limit

Year of
Impact

% Voted
Yes

MAINE

1993

1996

1996

67.6

CALIFORNI
A

1990

12 (c)

1996

12 (c)

1998

52.2

COLORADO

1990

1998

1998

71

ARKANSAS

1992

16 (d)

1998

16(d)

2000

59.9

MICHIGAN

1992

1998

2002

58.8

FLORIDA

1992

2000

2000

76.8

OHIO

1992

2000

2000

68.4

SOUTH
DAKOTA

1992

2000

2000

63.5

MONTANA

1992

2000

2000

67

ARIZONA

1992

2000

2000

74.2

MISSOURI
(a)

1992

2002

2002

75

OKLAHOM
A

1990

12 (c)

2004

12 (c)

2004

67.3

NEBRASKA

2000

n/a

n/a

2006

56

LOUISIANA

1995

12

2007

12

2007

76

NEVADA (b)

1996

12

2010

12

2010

70.4

(a) Because of special elections, term limits were effective in 2000 for eight current members of the
House and one Senator in 1998.
(b) The Nevada Legislative Council and Attorney General ruled that Nevada's term limits could not be
applied to those legislators elected in the same year term limits were passed (1996). They first applied to

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persons elected in 1998.

(c) In California and Oklahoma, a legislator may serve a total of 12 years in the legislature during his or
her lifetime. The total time may be split between the two chambers, or spent in its entirety in a single
chamber. Before 2012, California's limits were six years in the assembly and eight years in the Senate.
(d) In Arkansas in 2014 a ballot measure changed term limits so that a legislator may serve a total of 16
years in the legislature during his or her lifetime. Before 2014, limits were six years in the House and
eight years in the Senate. (National Conference of State Legislators)
All limitations regarding actual House Representatives or Senators were overruled by a Supreme
Court decision in 1995, ruling that the State-level politics had no authority to change to qualifications
for being elected to Congress (Term Limits). But even today, with some limits still in place, there is a
widespread dissatisfaction with Congress and a widespread call to impose term limits on Congress at the
Federal level. A Gallup poll given as recently as 2013 shows that 75% of voting adults would vote for
term limits in Congress (Saad), and another Reukers/Ipsos poll with similar results in 2015 (Lannacci).
There are only two ways in which it would be possible to impose term limits on Congressional
Representatives since the Supreme Court ruling. In the first, and traditional method, an amendment to
the Constitution that instills Congressional term limits would be proposed by a committee, discussed,
probably altered slightly and submitted for a vote by Congress. Today, a great deal of bills (which
become a law when passed, and are handled slightly different than amendments) are actually created and
proposed by lobbyists and special interest groups, but well get to that later. If a bill or amendment is
passed by two-thirds of both the House and Senate, separately, then it is proposed to the States. If twothirds of the states accept the amendment, it is applied to the Constitution. The second way is a provision
provided by the Constitution itself, called Article V. In Article V, the states can convene in what is called

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a Constitutional Convention, and in a way they can bypass congress to propose and vote on an
amendment themselves, which they can then ratify through a two-thirds vote.
Who doesnt want term limits? You might ask. Today, it obvious enough through reliable polling
such as Gallup, in which nearly every demographic said they would vote for term limits, including
Republicans, Democrats, Independents and all age categories and minorities by a minimum margin of
65% (Saad). It is clear that today there is a common frustration from the people with Washington and an
emerging realization that Congress is where the frustration should be aimed, where many
Representatives have served for decades despite clear showing of self-interest. At this point, there are
few people beyond incumbents themselves, and the special interest and lobbyists that feed off of them
who are opposed to Congressional term limits.
Supporters of term limits argue that imposing term limits would nearly eliminate the influence
that special-interest groups and lobbyists hold on many members of Congress. Lobbyists and specialinterest groups are groups usually comprised of corporations and experts in certain areas, who develop
long term relationships with Representatives and help them with donations and re-election campaigns,
and in return the Representatives accept their counsel on many issues, propose bills that are in favor of
the lobbyists own interests, or bills that even hurt the interests of said lobbyists opponents (Payne). Over
extended periods of time, lobbyists can develop tremendous influence on Representatives or committees.
Because of the nature of how long this process takes, by imposing term limits these lobbyists and
special-interest groups would never have the time to develop these relationships, and would not have the
influence to donate literally millions to help their incumbents get re-elected. Due to many incumbents

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being elected time and time again they begin to spend more time in D.C. with their lobbyists, and less
time at home in their respective districts. The founding fathers could have never imagined this, as they
believed that just a frequent election was sufficient in frequent turnover of Representatives, as the idea
of careerism in Congress was nonexistent at the time (Erickson).
Incumbency comes with many benefits in regards to re-election. When one thinks about the
power that incumbents hold, it becomes quite obvious that they hold an unfair advantage over
challengers in elections. Incumbents have the power to direct the treasury, and divy money to
themselves in certain scenarios for campaigning, and they have the power to erase the district lines and
create new ones that work to their benefit in elections (Greenberg). Opponents of term limits argue that
the answer to incumbent advantage is to reform campaign finance, or put a cap on how much one can
spend on an election in certain cases or scenarios. This was the solution proposed by Congress after the
earlier mentioned bill proposing term limits was voted down in the 1990's (Congressional Term limits
104-158). This is hardly an answer to the true underlying question, as Greenberg points out in his article.
For example: if a general cap was placed around $1,000,000 (adjusted for todays currency from late
1990's) on election spending for Congressional candidates, including incumbents, this would actually
lead to a further advantage to the incumbents when only the challengers who spend this amount or more
stand at least a 50% chance of winning the election. I confirmed this statistic through the current
database of the Federal Elections Commission, which allowed for the adjustment in dollar value as well
(FEC). A simple google search along the lines of price of a Congressional campaign will show

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thousands of results from which you can easily deduce yourself that spending big money on a campaign
is how a campaign is won.
As for countless local, state, and even federal positions, such as the seat of President, there are
term limits in place. Some of these limits were placed there by our founding fathers to safeguard
Democracy, others have had to be figured out along the way, but nonetheless imposing limits on how
many terms an elected official can serve has always proven to be the most fundamental and secure way
to protect true democracy. A solid argument presented by opponents of term limits is a polar opposite of
this, however. Many opponents would argue that the limits are undemocratic by nature, that it prevents
the best possible candidate in some cases from being on the ballot. I see this as a strong point of view,
however, placing term limits is the best way to prevent misuse of power for self gain in long serving
politicians, which is by definition corruption (Term Limits). As Americans today, we have grown
accustomed to the departure of even our greatest leaders from office. We say goodbye with sweet
sorrow, and we look onward to the next opportunity to seek the best among us to lead into the future and
bring forth new ideas and skills. The majority of us could not imagine the absence of this ritual in
politics, and the same should be true of Congress, as you will realize if you study politics that they are
almost, if not just as important collectively as the President himself.
Ensuring that incumbents can only serve a limited number of terms will open up a world of
possibilities, allowing new, fresh ideas to flood into our Congress, releasing it from the clutches of
outside influence such as lobbyists and special-interest groups. These outside influences do not represent
the people -- the many -- they represent the few and the corporations and organizations that they truly

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are, and by extension the Representatives that they groom over periods of decades do not serve the
people either. Imposing term limits will keep incumbents from spending millions of dollars
(collectively) on campaigning, sending out letters regarding election, all of the staff hours that are spent
on the phones, in meetings, campaigning, and in turn would end up reducing the cost of campaigning at
least by a mentionable margin. All of this time, money, and effort that many incumbents have spent on a
regular basis for years or decades, and at the very least the spending that is done every election year for
each incumbent could be spent researching and focusing on real issues for the people and the
Representatives districts and states. These are the reasons why the United States should, by way of
Article V of the Constitution, impose term limits on Congressional Representatives of both the House
and Senate, listening to the common voice of the people in a vote, in the true democratic sense, and
ultimately use the most fundamental defense of its freedoms, for the greatest force of democracy that has
ever existed: The United States of America.

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Works Cited

"Congressional Term Limits 104-158" U.S. Congress and Senate Report. 104th Congress. (1995)
Congress.gov. Web. https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/104th-congress/senatereport/158/1 Full Text Congressional Report. Accessed 13 October 2016
Erickson, Stephen C. "A Bulwark Against Faction: James Madison's Case For Term Limits."
Policy Review 63 (1993): 76-78. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 15 Oct. 2016.
FEC.gov. Full website. Federal Election Commission Web management. (2016) web. Accessed
28 October 2016
Greenberg, Dan. "Term Limits: The Only Way to Clean Up Congress." Heritage.org. 10 August 1994.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1994/08/bg994nbsp-term-limitsnbsp-the-only-way.
Research Report Full Text. Web. Accessed 14 October 2016.
Lannacci, Nicandro. "Should There be Term Limits for Members of Congress and the
Supreme Court?" Constitutioncenter.org. 27 February 2016.

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http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2016/02/should-there-be-term-limits-for-members-ofcongress-and-the-supreme-court/. Blog Article/post. Accessed 15 October 2016.

NCSL.org. Full Website. National Conference of State Legislatures. Web. 13 March 2015.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/chart-of-term-limits-states.aspx
Accessed 29 October 2016
Payne, James L. "Limiting Government By Limiting Congressional Terms." Public Interest 103
(1991): 106-117. Business Abstracts with Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 14 Oct. 2016.
Saad, Lydia. Americans Call for Term Limits, End to Electoral College. gallup.com. Web. 18
January 2013. Full article with charts. http://www.gallup.com/poll/159881/americans-callterm-limits-end-electoral-college.aspx Accessed 27 October 2016
Sabato, Larry J. A More Perfect Constitution. Print. Walker Publishing Company, Inc. 2007.
"Term Limits." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Encyclopedia.com. October
2016. http://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/political-science-andgovernment/political-science-terms-and-concepts/term#A Web. 14 October 2016.