Burchett / 5 Senator Harrington

S.R._____

A JOINT RESOLUTION
To extend terms to 4 years and place a maximum of three terms on members of the House of Representatives.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the House Term Reform Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) 75% of Americans support term limits
2) Only 5% of Americans rate the job Congress is doing as excellent or good.
3) In 2012, 91% of incumbents were re-elected
4) In 2010, the average incumbent in the House raised around $1.4 million, while the challengers averaged $166,000.
5) In the late 1980s and early 1990s, views of people in the upper third of the income distribution received about
50% more weight than those in the middle third, and those of the bottom third received almost no weight in the
voting decisions of representatives.
6) The 112th Congress passed fewer laws than any Congress before it.
7) The most competitive races, and the ones that bring the largest voter turnouts, are for open seats.
8) 15 U.S. states have term limits on their state legislators.
9) In states with term limits on state legislators, representation by women and minorities has greatly increased.
10) Term limits were put into the Articles of Confederation but were left out of the Constitution because the founding
fathers felt that including them would "be going into too much detail."
11) Under term limits, the State Legislature of California passed its budget on time for the first time in over a decade.
12) House Republicans already have a six-year term limit on committee chairpeople.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
The Constitution of the United States is hereby amended as follows:
Section 1.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every fourth year by the people of the several
states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch
of the state legislature.
Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as
may be into two classes. The seats of the Representatives of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the
second year, and of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, so that one half may be chosen every second
year.
Section 2.
No person shall be elected to an office of the House of Representatives more than three times. But this article shall
not apply to any person holding an office of the House of Representatives when this article was proposed by the
Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding an office of the House of Representatives during the
term within which this article becomes operative from holding an office of the House of Representatives during the
remainder of such term.
Section 3.
Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the first day of November following the ratification of this article.
Section 4.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been 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
the Congress.

Why We Need Term Limits

Today in the United States, Congress is plagued by inefficiencies and hindrances which cause it
to work far worse than it was intended to. Among the greatest issues facing the the system of
government is the current terms of the House of Representatives. Currently, Representatives
serve two-year terms and have no limitations on the number of terms they serve. The United
States of America must implement a limit of three four-year terms on the House of
Representatives in order to increase political diversity, become more representative of the people,
and foster productivity in Congress.
The first benefit of these term limits is an increase in political diversity. Right now, it is
extremely difficult to vote Representatives out of office. In fact, historically the incumbent is
reelected over 90% of the time, and this is definitely not to say that 90% of incumbents act
favorably. Actually, a 2015 poll rated the job that this Congress is doing with a favorability of
only 5%. There is a huge disconnect in the political system when members of Congress have
such a pitifully low approval rating yet are almost unanimously allowed to stay in office. Term
limits are the simplest way to prevent the percentage of do-nothing incumbents being reelected
from staying at 90%. Elections for open seats are not only more competitive, but they also yield
a higher rate of success for women and minorities. Thus, a system in which term limits are in
place would create an environment which includes more opinions and more perspectives from
many backgrounds.
This increase of diversity would actually make Americas so-called representative democracy
more representative of the real wants of the people. In the last three decades, views of people in
the upper third of the income distribution received about 50% more weight than those in the
middle third, and those of the bottom third received almost no weight in the voting decisions of
representatives (Bartels). This is largely because of how tied representatives are to special
interests who fund them, but it is also because the demographic of representatives in Congress is
not representative of both the cultural and ideological backgrounds of the population. A majority
of representatives are wealthy, white men who simply do not represent the desires of all
Americans. And even though Congress has been becoming less white and less male gradually
over the last 50 years, term limits would drastically speed up this process of making the
demographics of Congress more representative of the demographics of the nation as a whole. In
addition, most Americans support term limits. In fact, as much as 75% of Americans support
them (Saad), and many forms of term limits already exist in the United States. For example, now
15 state legislatures have term limits, almost all of which have been movements driven by citizen
initiatives, and the G.O.P. has adopted a six-year term limit for committee chairpeople.
The greatest benefit of these term limits is increased productivity. The 112th Congress passed
fewer laws than any Congress before it. According to Martin Rossi, shorter terms discourage
effort in office due to an investment payback logic. Representatives spend most of their two
years in Congress fundraisingtheir investmentin order to be reelectedthe payback. They
are locked in an indefinite cycle in which they can stay, make millions of dollars, and almost
certainly be reelected simply because they are already there. With term limits, there would be no
cycle. Representatives would be more focused on policy than publicity, and they would get more
done. States in which the state legislature has term limits, such as New Hampshire, have both the
more minimal parliaments and more fiscal freedom than those without.
It is imperative that term limits be enacted in the House of Representatives. The current lack of
accurate representation, political diversity, and efficiency in Congress can best be solved with
term limits and longer terms. Term limits are a badly needed change in American democracy.