Do You Support Term Limits For Congress? Easier Said Than Done

Congress' approval rating is 29% according to pollster Gallup.

Pew Research conducted in 2023 shows 87% of adults favor limiting the number of terms members of congress can serve.

Some members of the U.S. House and Senate are serving for decades, with some reaching their seventies and eighties or older while in office.

Washington U.S. Senator Patty Murray has been in office since 1993 and Senator Maria Cantwell since 2001.  Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA-4th) was elected to congress in 2015.  Rep. Rick Larsen (D- WA-2nd) has been in office since 2001 and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA, 9th) went to Congress in 1997.

On the national scene, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has represented New York in the U.S. Senate and Congress before that since 1981.  Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)  is in his 7th (6 year term)  Nancy Pelosi (D-CA,11th) has served since 1987.

Most Americans are not happy with the length of service members of congress are compiling.  The problem may be that they don't seem to care when it's their own representative or Senator in question.  Polling shows almost eight in ten adults (79%) want an age limit in congress and 3/4ths of respondents support a mandatory retirement age for SCOTUS (U.S. Supreme Court) Justices.

But if you want to see term limits in Congress, it's a heavy lift and here's why.  The hurdles to impose term limits seems almost impossible to achieve if you look into the history of the previous attempt three decades ago.

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In 1995, 23 states passed laws putting term limits in place on their representatives to Congress.  With almost half of the members of Congress  facing term limits, it would be forced to consider term limits for all.

A politician opposed it in one of the states that passed term limits and the Arkansas State Supreme Court voided term limits in that state.  Like dominoes, the challenges spread to other states and supporters of term limits took the appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court-- and lost.

SCOTUS ruled the Constitution determines the requirements to serve in Congress, not states and citizens.

The Court was split 5-4 in their ruling that citizens can't use state laws to limit the term of their own members of Congress.

The court said because term limits would be such an important change, the remedy would require a constitutional amendment.  And the instruction manual so to speak, created by our founding fathers is right there in Article V of the Constitution.

A Term Limits Amendment Proposal Convention

According to TermLimits.com the Term Limits Convention uses “the procedures set forth in Article V” to achieve congressional term limits. The Convention is not a state law like those the SCOTUS, it is a constitutional call-to-action that triggers automatically when 34 state legislatures demand it.   States don’t need the permission of Congress to propose a Constitutional amendment.

Article V of the U.S. Constitution

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

Here is how the procedure works through the states or Congress

(Graphic: TermLimits.org)

The Current Stage of the Process

Here is what is happening with efforts in Congress and the States to advance term limits

Article V: Proposal by Congress

We believe that the rise of political careerism in modern Washington is a drastic departure from what the founders intended of our federal governing bodies. To effectively ‘drain the swamp,’ we believe it is past time to enact term limits for Congress. ~ Florida Governor and Former Congressman Ron Desantis

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas (Senate Joint Resolution 2 [SJR2]) and Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina (House Joint Resolution 11 [HJR11]), introduced and sponsored a resolution limiting terms in office for both members of the House and the Senate. It must garner the support of 3/4 of both houses by the end of December 2025.

Article V: Proposal by State Convention

Currently, the Article V movement with the most traction is the Balanced Budget Amendment which needs only a few more states in order for Congress to call an Article V Convention. Nineteen states have passed Article V convention applications for a limited government that includes imposition of term limits on Congress. As of late March, 2025l, ten states have passed the term limits exclusive application, WV, FL, MO, AL, WI, TN, LA, NC and OK  For the latest, visit termlimits.com/progress.