ipl-logo

Congressional Limits

1120 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gun control in the usa

Limits to Congressional Terms
The only constant thing in America is change; except when it comes to the congressional member that govern our country. Many political pundits questioned how a junior senator from Illinois became President of the United States; because of change. The America people want it but Congress is having none of it. Legislation to limits congressional terms is not as published as gun control, but it is a domestic policy issue that many American are very concerned about. The founding fathers of America did not indent careerism in politics. Imposing limits on congressional terms is the only way for true democracy to flourish.
The issue of limits to congressional term is not a new topic of debate in the United States. …show more content…

Once their term was complete, they returned to the lives and career in their state of origin (Vance, 1994, 429). Not convinced, refer to Roger Sherman (founding father), “The representatives ought to return home and mix with the people. By remaining at the seat of the government, they will acquire the habits of the place, which might differ from those of the constituents...” (Vance, 1994, 429). Fast forward to Congress of the 21st century, there average term for most congressmen is well over 30 years. If you were to perform a website for “who is the longest serving member of the Senator,” you will see Democrat Robert C Byrd, 51 years of serves (1959 to 2010; Democratic Daniel K. Inouye , 49 years of serves (1963 to 2012) and Republican Strom Thurmond, 47 years of serves (1954 to 2003) (U.S. Senate: Longest Serving Senators, 2015). It is also interesting to note that of these three, all died in office with the exception of Strom Thurmond who technically stepped down before he died six months later. Tyranny has clearly crept back in government when congressional member are allowed to remain in office for more than 30 years (Vance, 1994, 429). Limits on congressional terms are clearly needed and are necessity to uphold the founding fathers’ intention of a democratic process that allows every citizen the privilege to participate in the political system; and to prevent unfair advantages given to

Show More
Related
242 Words | 1 Pages

The article is written by Richard Fenno in 1978, summarizing the dilemma of congressmen in the contemporary time. The author was specifically discussing about members of the House, who always seek for reelection during his legislative career, as stated in the initial part of the paper. Fenno went on to propose the conflict in incumbent congressmen 's career: more attention for the Washington career leads to less attention for the congressmen 's home state. The Washington career required commitment to build up support within the House. However, focusing on Washington rendered the congressman homeless, or losing his home 's supportive forces.

Read More
709 Words | 3 Pages

In 1990, term limits were about eight years in the Senate and six years in the Assembly. However, in 2010, it went up to twelve years no matter where they are. There was a higher term expectancy, lower switching, and more institutional memory. Term limits allowed for more diversity by representatives and more new ideas to try out coalitions. The problem with short term limits is that there was a loss of “institutional memory” where there is a well-crafted policy and “splashy” policy, to look good in the process.

Read More
1144 Words | 5 Pages

However, reelection being the motivator of members of Congress isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The motivation to be reelected incentivizes members of Congress to enact legislation and constantly work to improve the lives of citizens. Regardless of motive, as long as legislation is being passed through the House and members of Congress like Representative Long are improving the conditions of their district, the purpose of government is being

Read More
1552 Words | 7 Pages

Perhaps one of the best arguments for lack of speed in Congress was laid out by a paper in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1963, when the editors wrote, “The Slowness of Congress, its traditional process, its respect for minority sentiment, all these will be enjoyed at one time or another by every minority, and all of us belong to the minority at times. ” Lack of speed is a check on majority by the minority. In turn each political party will be in power or out of power and thus slowness has the virtue of stopping the majority from riding roughshod over any minority group. Even though there are at least two major benefits, there are equal drawbacks of having a slow moving

Read More
1564 Words | 7 Pages

In the aftermath of the first real wave of retiring legislators, supporters and opponents have debated on the benefits and detriments of term limits and neither side could come to a conclusion. In Maine where term limit restrictions resulted in a legislature comprised of 40% first term members resulted in the state’s budget being passed in march, the earliest in the state’s history. Supporters saw this as an example that members were working harder and were being more effective, while detractors saw the early budget as inexperienced legislators were passing proposals with inadequate understanding and scrutiny. Supporters emphasize the annual turnover increase in both chambers since the adoption of Proposition 140, as well as the significant increase in the number of members retiring voluntarily before they were 'termed-out '. Supporters are also quick to point out the increase in minority and women legislators increased as had been predicted.

Read More
298 Words | 2 Pages

In consecutive term limits, a legislator is limited to serving a particular number of years in a chamber. After meeting the limit in that chamber, he or she may run for election to a different chamber or

Read More
485 Words | 2 Pages

Although former members may be elected again after a two year break. The two houses meet for a session each beginning of March for a period that does not exceed sixty days. Each house has their own leader, Andy Gardiner as the President of Senate and Steve Crisafulli as the Speaker of the House. There are currently two senators, Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio as well as

Read More
597 Words | 3 Pages

If someone is in office for so long, finding someone that is as skilled as that person to take over could be a challenge. It could be hard for someone to quickly become successful in that term limit due to a limited amount of time. New members coming in could also mean that they won’t be quite as educated on all the legislation that has happened. This can cut how much time that person actually gets to spend in Congress because they have to learn more material. This would leave very few congress people that could actually legislate.

Read More
89 Words | 1 Pages

Members of the U.S. Senate serve six-year terms, however, there is no limit to the number of terms an individual may serve. With that being said, many senators serve numerous terms, and it is rather unlikely to see an incumbent senator, a current member of the Senate, lose his/her seat after seeking reelection. This phenomenon is known as the incumbency advantage. As seen in the graph above, incumbent senators up for reelection have had an advantage since at least the mid-twentieth century.

Read More
411 Words | 2 Pages

There are many differing views on the powers congress holds, and congress itself, one such point of view is on whether or not congressmen should have a limited number of terms they are capable of serving, similar to how the president is only capable of serving two terms, and whether or not it would benefit both the people and the government. Congress itself is the legislative branch of the federal government, and as such holds a large amount of authority and power, including putting laws into effect, declaring war, taxing, impeachment, and many other important duties that can be carries out only by congress. Furthermore, members of congress do not have limits on the amount of terms they are allowed to serve, only limits on the length of each term, for those in the house of representatives each term is two years, while in the senate, each term is six years long. I find this to be a matter of public concern because many

Read More
706 Words | 3 Pages

Term Limits for Congress Currently there are no term limits for the members of the United States Congress. An example of this is John Dingell. Having served just over sixty years, Dingell is the longest serving member of congress in United States history (“Democratic Rep. Dingell, Longest-Serving Congressman, to Retire”). This has caused an issue because some of the members of congress have become corrupt.

Read More
309 Words | 2 Pages

Hello my name is Ben Trammell and today I will be speaking about how congressional term limits would build a congress of little experience. Would you put term limits on policemen so they have no incentive to become corrupt? If so, then your police force would be filled with inexperienced rookies who would then make bad decisions due to their lack of experience. Congress would work the same way, they would have they same problem with rookie congressmen and women. If we impose these term limits we will be replacing a wiser man (that knows what to do) with an inexperienced man (who doesn 't know what to do).

Read More
339 Words | 2 Pages

This shows that term limits in the Supreme Court became more important. For example, if they have more mature members, they would understand the law, and would understand the politics and their decisions on the society. Mr. Ingraham stated

Read More
1338 Words | 6 Pages

It is quite common in our life that when people are admiring a movie star, when would try their best to mimic his actions. For example, people would imitate his ways of walking or his accents when he is talking. Or, when we are talking to somebody, if his ways of talking or some of actions are really similar to us, we would feel affection from him or her. Why would this kind of situation happen? An experiment which perfectly showed this phenomenon was done by Chartrand and Bargh in 1999, who showed there is a natural tendency for people to mimic other people’s behaviors which is known as Chameleon Effect.

Read More
203 Words | 1 Pages

Being able to limit the power of the federal government may seem pretty skeptical at first, it maybe makes us question the decision on why it's necessary but there are reasons to support it. When we limit the federal government we are allowed to have liberty in many different senses. In the preamble of the constitution it states that the federal government was formed to "form a more perfect union." But how can we establish such a thing? The federal government must be limited because if the action isn't taken, individuals won't be able to perform their civil liberties.

Read More

More about Congressional Limits

Related Topics

Open Document