Mike Thompson: “today, I am introducing a constitutional amendment to limit congressional service to 6 years in the House and 12 years…”

“today, I am introducing a constitutional amendment to limit congressional service to 6 years in the House and 12 years in the Senate. This proposal is identical to the one introduced in the 104th Congress. On May 22, 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the term limits that 23 different States had imposed on congressional service. The Court further declared that Congress lacks the constitutional authority to enact term limits by statute. Therefore, enacting this reform, which polls consistently show that more than 70 percent of the American people support, will require passing a constitutional amendment. Although this proposal is not about denigrating the institution of Congress or those who have ably served lengthy tenures, public confidence in elected officials does remain abysmally low. Given the many scandals involving public officials, the myriad of negative campaign commercials, and the inability of Congress to solve major national problems like the budget deficit, I can hardly blame the American people for being cynical. Nothing could be farther from the basic tenets of democracy than a professional ruling class, yet despite the supposedly high turnover in the last three congressional elections, that is essentially what Congress has become. Each of the last three Congresses has had unusually large freshman classes, but the percentage of those returned to Congress still exceeds the typical return rate prior to 1941.”