Congress Terms

Do you know how long Mitch McConnell has been serving as senator? Or how long Nancy Pelosi has been serving as congresswoman? The answers are thirty-seven and thirty-five years, respectively. Both are over eighty years old, and have been serving for over twenty-one terms combined. So what’s the problem here? People voted for these two candidates to keep them in office for so long, after all. 

The problem with longtime incumbents is that fresh voices don’t get a chance to speak. The longer someone stays in Congress, the more trust they build up among their voters. This makes it harder for challengers to get elected and bring fresh perspectives to Congress - perspectives more reflective of the times.

Early U.S. presidents adhered to a custom of term limits because the founders of the United States wanted to avoid the emergence of a dictatorship. Too many terms, they reasoned, and the president starts to hold absolute power over the United States of America. Eventually, the country amended the Constitution to limit presidents to two terms. 

It’s a somewhat similiar scenario for congresspeople. The longer a congressperson stays in office, the more they rise through the ranks within their party. For example, McConnell is the senate minority leader, the Republicans’ leader in the Senate, making him one of the most powerful people in congress. Nancy Pelosi is the outgoing Speaker of the House, so she can control what bills the House sees, which means that she also holds an immense amount of power.

These powers bring us back to the conundrum of a dictatorship-like reign (although, to be fair, this is a far less extreme scenario). If someone’s been in congress in lofty positions such as these for fourteen years, they’ve been able to control what legislation the House has been seeing for the past fourteen years. Just like how the president would’ve been vetoing any bill they didn’t like for the past fourteen years.

What’s the solution? Term limits on congress. Two terms, like the president, is much too short for a congressperson, but three terms for a senator and nine for a congressperson should do the trick. That works out to 18 years in office, as senators serve for six-year terms, and House members for two-year terms. This way, if one begins serving around forty, they will not age far past sixty while in Congress.

It’s the ideal solution - no one serves for too long, making room for newer, younger, modern voices. The American people should be represented by a diverse spectrum of fresh perspectives and ideas, rather than the same people over and over again. Congress needs to reflect the new ideas and fresh perspectives in the air, and term limits in Congress are the perfect way to accomplish this, on both sides of the aisle.