U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) on Friday introduced new legislation that would impose term limits on members of Congress.
If enacted, the bill would amend the Constitution and only allow House members to serve three two-year terms, and Senators could serve two six-year terms.
However, under the legislation, the new term limits would only affect members of Congress that are elected after the measure is approved. According to Burchett, this provision might encourage current members to support the legislation.
“Many U.S. House reps vocally support term limits but fail to act when the time comes,” Rep. Burchett said in a statement. “I understand many sitting members do not want term limits to apply to them. Grandfathering these members allows commonsense term limits to take effect, retires entrenched political power brokers, and creates a Congress full of fresh ideas.”
Burchett has remained a staunch supporter of term limits for Congress. He has called on members of the Tennessee General Assembly to pass a measure to support a term-limits convention.
“When the Founding Fathers designed our federal government, they did not envision a permanent political elite. They wanted people from all walks of life to serve for a short while, then return home to live under the laws they had made. Thomas Jefferson called this ‘rotation in office.’ John Adams referred to it as ‘university in rotation.’ Whatever name one gives it, the idea of term limits lives within the American spirit, and we are long overdue to return to this founding principle,” Burchett wrote in an opinion piece in the Knoxville News Sentinel.
The congressman was also honored by U.S. Term Limits (USTL), the nation’s largest pro-term limits group, for his steadfast support.
According to polling, term limits are widely popular among Tennessee residents.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Tim: I am glad to see that we now have a congressman representing our district that is working every day rather than just preparing for the annual “family bar-b-que”. Your support for Term Limits is refreshing and something that needs to be placed on the mid-term ballots in every state for next November. Let’s let the American people decide this issue. I can promise it would pass with an overwhelming majority.
Of great importance also is our dependence on foreign made pharmaceuticals. As a pharmacist I fully understand our nation’s health and national security risks we face by relying on China and India for our generic meds. Please sponsor a bill to force drug manufacturers to bring this production home to the U.S. within the next five years. It could be a combination of in-country taxes along with some kind of price controls which would make it untenable for them to continue to export production of critical drugs and also prevent them from passing along penalty costs to consumers.
Thank you for your efforts on these important issues.
I wish him luck. Congress will never vote to limit then selves. Hope they do, but no chance.
Makes too much sense for Congress to pass this legislation. We need a constitutional convention to make this happen.