Term Limit Debate Sparked By Souder Scandal

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - Congressman Souder's sudden resignation after sixteen years and eight terms in Congress has sparked a centuries old debate. Should there be Congressional term limits? Currently the House of Representatives has unlimited two year terms, and the Senate has unlimited six year terms. If you're part of the majority of Americans who favor Congressional term limits, it may be harder to than you think to make limits a reality.

Back in 1787, the Framers didn't include term limit requirements for U.S. Senators or Representatives in the Constitution. What it does include are requirements that the member of Congress be 25, a resident of the state they are representing, and an American citizen for at least nine years.

Therefore, to add an additional requirement, such as term limits, would be unconstitutional. The only way to change that would be through a constitutional amendment, and that could be a difficult task.

To pass a constitutional amendment, a two-thirds approval in each House is required. Then the measure must be ratified by three-quarters of the states. It's understandable why past efforts to pass an amendment that would implement congressional term limits have all failed.

It wasn't until 1951 that the 22nd Amendment was passed, setting the number of presidential term limits at two, four-year terms.

In 1994 Republicans ran on a "Contract with America" ticket advocating term limits. That included Congressman Mark Souder, who was elected in that election. The party won a majority in Congress, and a constitutional amendment was brought to the House floor. The measure would have limited Senators to two, six-year terms and Representatives to six, two-year terms. A majority of the House voted for the amendment, but it fell short of the two-thirds vote needed to pass.

In 1995 the Supreme Court ruled states could not impose term limits on Senators or Representatives from their state, saying this would be unconstitutional.

In 2009, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint sponsored a measure that would limit to the House to three, two-year terms and the Senate to two, six-year terms. Political analysts were quick to point out the futility of the amendment attempt, saying there was little chance two thirds of Congress would vote to limit their own power.

There have, however, been a number of Congressmen and Congresswomen over the years who had self-imposed term limits, saying they believed in set limits and would abide by them even if it wasn't legally required. Congressman Souder was one of those people. In addition to voting for term limits in the 90's, he also said at one time that he would would not seek re-election past six terms. After a change of heart, Souder broke that pledge when he ran and won a seventh campaign.

People in favor of term limits say the current congressional environment breeds corruption, special interest spending, and a lack of ambition since at one time nearly 90% of incumbents were re-elected.

John Moehring is a former Washington lobbyist. Speaking about Souder he said, "He should have resigned and moved on probably ten years ago. To me, someone should only stay in the House of Representatives six to eight years and that's it."

Opponents of term limits say tenured politicians gain more skill and knowledge. In addition, they say, incumbents doing well shouldn't be forced out until voters decide they should not longer be in Congress.

Leonard Goldstein says he opposed to term limits in Washington. "I think we have the opportunity to limit terms through the electoral process, and I think we'd do better if we were better informed and educated regarding issues and candidates."

Goldstein also points out that most people do better at their job as they gain more experience and career knowledge.

Only time will tell if the Souder scandal will have any sort of long lasting effect on the term limit debate. If the day ever comes when the members of Congress are required to hang up their hats after a specified amount of time, there will be quite a few career politicians in need of career counseling.