OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Issue Position: Amendments to US Constitution

Issue Position

By: Bob Scott
By: Bob Scott
Date: June 2, 2008
Issues: Legislative Branch


Issue Position: Amendments to US Constitution

I do not favor any of the constitutional amendments currently proposed except one for term limits for US Representatives and Senators . My proposal for an amendment for term limits is given below:

Proposed amendment to the Constitution:

Congress may legislate term limits for US Representatives and Senators.

Proposed companion legislation for limiting terms for US Representatives and Senators:

US Representatives will be limited to three terms in office and Senators will be limited to two terms in office except that to maintain continuity 60 members of the House of Representatives (30 from the majority and 30 from the minority) will be allowed to seek reelection for additional terms after each legislative session and 24 Senators(12 from the majority and 12 from the minority) will be allowed to seek reelection for additional terms. The sitting US Representatives and Senators will elect (by secret ballot) the members who will be allowed to seek reelection . All sitting US Representatives will vote for 30 majority members and 30 minority members. All sitting senators will vote for 12 majority members and 12 minority members.

The majority members and the minority members with the most votes will be allowed to seek reelection for more than three terms for US Representatives and more than two terms for Senators.

My reasoning for the amendment and accompanying law:
It will be nearly impossible to get congressmen to agree to pass a constitutional amendment that merely limits their number of terms- they want to stay! However they may be willing to pass the amendment and accompanying law if they think they will be the ones picked by their colleagues to run for reelection for additional terms. If they vote by secret ballot, I expect the US Representatives and Senators would vote for the most competent members of their own and the opposition party. These would probably include the committee chairmen in the next congress.


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