Proposed Constitutional Amendment: Congressional Term Limits
Section 1. Term Limits for Members of Congress
No person shall be elected to the Congress of the United States more than three times, regardless of whether such terms are consecutive. For purposes of this article:
A “term” is defined as a two-year period for Representatives or a six-year period for Senators, beginning on January 3 following an election.
Service in Congress shall begin upon the administration of the oath of office or upon assumption of the duties of the office.
Service of more than one year in a two-year term or more than three years in a six-year term to which another person was elected shall count as a full term.
Section 2. Combined Limits for Both Chambers
A person who has served the maximum number of terms in one chamber (House or Senate) may not be elected to the other chamber thereafter, regardless of prior service or gaps between terms.
Section 3. No Reset of Term Limits
For the purposes of Section 1, once a person has been elected to the maximum number of terms, they shall not be eligible for election to Congress for the remainder of their lifetime, except as specified in Section 6.
Section 4. Grandfather Clause and Transition Provisions
This article shall not apply retroactively to any terms completed prior to the date of ratification. However, any person serving in Congress at the time of ratification shall have their term limits calculated beginning with the first election after ratification.
Section 5. Legal Enforcement and Dispute Resolution
Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation, including:
Procedures for certifying eligibility of candidates before elections.
Mechanisms for addressing disputes related to term limits, with final adjudication by the Supreme Court.
Section 6. Exceptional Circumstances
In the event of a national emergency or declaration of war by Congress, a two-thirds vote of each chamber may suspend the application of this article for specific members for the duration of the emergency, provided:
Such suspension is temporary and subject to renewal every two years.
A suspended member’s eligibility ends immediately upon the conclusion of the emergency.
Section 7. Ratification Timeline
This article shall be inoperative unless ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by Congress.
Do away with completely of Section 6. I do not foresee any reason why in a country of over 3 billion people why any one person would need to have an exception made in order for them to be elected to Congress. There are literally millions of people that are competent enough to do their job. Everyone is replaceable and I see this provision being abused.
Section 5 be changed to “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” The listing of certain items is redundant as they are already included in the preceding statement, and providing a list of enumerated items to be included, actually restricts the powers to only those items specifically listed.
Section 4 re rephrased to read: "The ratification of this article shall not prevent any Senator or Representative in office at the time of the ratification of this Article from completing their term, but may bar them from eligibility for reelection according to the requirements imposed by this Article. "
I feel this is necessary as having reviewed the 2024 election so far, out of the 33 Senators up for reelection, only 8 incumbents were not on the ballot and 21 incumbents were sent back to DC.
In the House of Representatives, all 435 members were up for re-election, only 8 incumbents were defeated, and including those 8, only 61 new people were sent back to Washington, DC. This means 374 incumbents who are part of the “swamp” in Washington, were sent back into the swamp, in spite of a President who campaigned on “draining the Washington Swamp” and the American people allegedly sending a mandate for political change. Do NOT think that the Congress will look around and see all these familiar faces and conclude that the American people want more of the same!
Not to mention we have fossils serving in Congress including 84 year old Nancy Pelosi who has recently filed her re-election paperwork and continuously been in the house of Representatives since 1987 (37 years and counting) and she is just one person that has a similar record of continuous service in the Congress of the United States in both houses.
The founding idea was to have elections every 2 and 6 years so that citizens could serve a term and then return to the mass body of the people of the United States so as not to lose touch with reality and the concerns of the common man. We have a political elite who have grown to such wealth that Hollywood is more in touch with reality and the concerns of the Average Joe than they are. This needs to change.
I would say 2 terms and you’re out. Doesn’t matter if it’s consecutive or not. You should only be allowed 2 terms in the house or Senate. That’s how you keep the swamp creatures out of Government.