Katie Porter: “2 years ago, at the opening of the 103d Congress, upon my initiative, Republicans proposed to limit the time a Member…”

“2 years ago, at the opening of the 103d Congress, upon my initiative, Republicans proposed to limit the time a Member could chair a committee. Democrats rejected this initiative, which would have applied to their chairs. Today, Republicans again offer term limits for chairs--of committees and subcommittees--and it will now apply to us, the new majority party. This initiative will do much off what congressional term-limiters want to accomplish: it will break up the long-term power fiefdoms of committee and subscommittee chairs that often lead Members to be elected over and over again when otherwise they would have been retired. It will mean a chair will have just 6 years to work his or her agenda, then move on. But, it will leave to the people the final decision as to whether a Member should continue to represent them in Congress, where our founders believed that decision should be left under the Constitution. It will mean a far more dynamic body, one less in thrall to special interests, one more attuned to the interests of the Nation as a whole. I suspect the Democrats will strongly support this initiative now that it applies to Republic chairs. It is only sad that they could not have supported it 2 years ago and been leaders in reforming this body rather than obstructors.”