Texas Sen. Ted Cruz Files Bill Pushing For Congressional Term Limits

AUSTIN, TX — Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Tuesday joined his Florida counterpart in filing a bill designed to place term limits on lawmakers, saying the move would help overhaul Washington.

"The American people resoundingly agreed on Election Day, and President-elect Donald Trump has committed to putting government back to work for the American people," Cruz said in a prepared statement. "It is well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions.”

Cruz and Rep. Ron DeSantis, a Republican from Florida, filed the bill as a proposed amendment to the Constitution seeking to place term limits on members of Congress. Under the proposal, House members would be allowed to serve three two-year terms, and senators would be able to serve two six-year terms. Both men previously pledged to introduce the measure, as detailed in a Washington Post op-ed.

The move has garnered early support from several GOP senators, including Deb Fischer in Nebraska, Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Marco Rubio in Florida, Mike Lee in Utah and David Perdue in Georgia, all of whom are backing the proposal.

The resolution outlines that any congressional term before the amendment would become law would not be taken into account in determining whether or not a lawmaker can run for reelection.

As part of his campaign vow to "drain the swamp" in Washington, Trump backed the idea of term limits while on the stump. Still, some pundits say the measure could face an uphill battle in Congress.

As noted by The Hill publication, neither House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has said he supports term limits, nor Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled the measure could come up for a vote. McConnell even appeared to shut down Trump's term limits push post-election, telling reporters, "We have term limits — they're called elections."

Besides having to clear Congress, there stands another challenge in passing the Cruz-DeSantis proposal: It would also need to be ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures before going into effect, The Hill noted.

Regardless of the degree of difficulty in getting his measure passed, Cruz seemed undeterred, suggesting term limits were part and parcel of the electorate's mandate in the general election's aftermath.

"The time is now for Congress, with the overwhelming support of the American people, to submit this constitutional amendment to the states for speedy ratification," Cruz said. "With control of a decisive majority of the states, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, we have a responsibility to answer the voters’ call-to-action. We must deliver."

For his part, DeSantis posited term limits as a first step toward returning Congress to the ideals first envisioned by the Founding Fathers as they created a new nation.

“Term limits are the first step towards reforming Capitol Hill,” DeSantis told media outlets. “Eliminating the political elite and infusing Washington with new blood will restore the citizen legislature that our Founding Fathers envisioned. The American people have called for increased accountability and we must deliver. Senator Cruz has been instrumental in efforts to hold Congress accountable, and I look forward to working with him to implement term limits.”

The president of U.S. Term Limits (USTL), a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to enacting term limits for elected officials at every level of government in the U.S., applauded the Cruz-DeSantis initiative, calling for its quick passage.

"President Trump, Speaker Ryan and huge majorities of the American people are demanding term limits,” USTL President Philip Blumel said in a statement provided to Cruz's office and other forums. “Congress must listen and pass the Cruz-DeSantis amendment immediately."

But not everyone agrees with the broader issue of term limits as a panacea for congressional inaction, with some pundits questioning their effectiveness on committees in making Washington, D.C., more efficient. In a Washington Post op-ed published on Wednesday, Craig Volden, a professor of public policy and politics at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, and Alan E. Wiseman, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, studied the impact of limiting congressional terms in the policy-making realm.

"On the whole, the institution of term limits for committee and subcommittee chairs undermines expertise and lawmaking effectiveness in Congress," the professors wrote. "In some ways, this may be by design: Term limits were imposed in part to consolidate power in the speaker of the House and the majority party leadership at the expense of committee chairs, who were previously an independent source of power in the House."

The focus of the professors' study was on the work of committee chairs. They based their conclusion in studying the performance of past committee chairs with some longitudinal perspective, examining efficacy dating to the 1990s when Republicans limited their chair positions to three terms, or six years.

The upshot: "We have found that the legislative effectiveness of chairs increases the longer they serve in that role," the professors concluded. "In other words, committee chairs are being replaced just as they hit their stride. Then the new chair must start the learning curve all over again."

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