Alabama House passes resolution to impose term limits on U.S. Congress

There have never been term limits set for members of the U.S. Congress, but if the Alabama House has anything to say about it, that could soon be changing.

On Thursday, the state House passed a resolution calling for there to be a Article V convention of the states to impose term limits on members of the federal government.

The single-issue amendment convention would allow the American people to term limit Congress without needing federal lawmakers’ approval. This process, was designed by America’s Founders specifically to rein in abuses of power coming from members of the U.S. House and Senate.

The resolution, HJR23, sponsored by Albertville-Republican State Rep. Kerry Rich cleared the Alabama House on Thursday and now moves to the Senate for further consideration.

With the success in the Alabama House, the resolution is expected to pass the Alabama Senate this session as well, placing Alabama at the forefront of states proposing an amendment for term limits on the U.S. Congress.

But in order for term limits to become a reality, more states would have to follow suit. The process would work like this:

1. Two-thirds of state legislatures (34) must pass bills applying for a convention to consider only amendments for congressional term limits.
2. Congress is compelled by law to call the convention, which includes delegates chosen solely by their respective states.
3. The convention reports out an amendment for congressional term limits.
4. The amendment must be ratified by either three-quarters (38) of state legislatures or state conventions.

According to Philip Blumel, President of U.S. Term Limits, the nationwide leader in the movement to term limit elected officials,“More than 75% of Americans have rejected the career politician model and want to replace it with citizen leadership. The way to achieve this goal is through congressional term limits. The best chance we have of success is through term limits proposal convention applications through the state legislatures.”

According to the last nationwide poll on term limits conducted by Gallup, the issue enjoys wide bipartisan support. The results demonstrate that 75 percent of Americans support congressional term limits.

Gallup’s analysis states, “Republicans and Independents are slightly more likely than Democrats to favor term limits; nevertheless, the vast majority of all party groups agree on the issue. Further, Gallup finds no generational differences in support for the proposal.”