what’s at stake
US presidents can only serve two terms, but those limits don’t exist for members of Congress.
And the legislative branch is aging, only occasionally making way for a new generation. The 119th Congress is the third oldest in history, according to NBC News. According to a new report from the Leadership Now Project, a left-leaning group of current and former executives, 80% of US senators are over the age of 55; in addition, 53 of the 435 US House members will be at least 75 by next year.
Some lawmakers have pitched imposing congressional term limits, which would require an amendment to the US Constitution, in order to help newer members rise and discourage “career politicians” who spend their working years in elected office. But these proposals haven’t gained traction.
In this article:
who’s making the case
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the party’s top member on the House Judiciary Committee, argued that term or age limits are not needed:
“I don’t know that any of that is necessary. I mean, I have been deeply involved in both the Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee. And I made my bids and I took my chances, and people were willing to hear my case. And I think my case, I think [House Oversight Committee ranking member] Robert Garcia’s case, I think [House Natural Resources Committee ranking member] Jared Huffman’s case — are all demonstrations that our caucus is open to making difficult and fine-grained choices about who should serve as chair or ranking member. So I think that our system is working pretty well.”
Daniella Ballou-Aares, a former Obama administration official who founded the Leadership Now Project, argued in favor of committee term limits — which House Republicans have, but not Democrats — and said that at minimum there should be a culture shift that sees older members retiring earlier to make way for the next generation:
“What we’ve always been worried about as an organization is, is there enough experience outside of politics. We’ve seen more national security backgrounds coming into Congress over the last eight years, which I think has been good, but you still have pretty limited experience with the economy. … I think you could tackle that with term limits or with what we’ve been more oriented towards, which is a norm of retirement at age 75. Legislating all of these things requires constitutional amendments, it would be a very long process. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be pursued. I think term limits or age limits could be pursued, but I think what’s going to be more important is shifting those norms.”
“Talent management in the political world doesn’t do a lot of the things that we see the best companies do, [such as] succession planning. … For a successful political party, I think taking on some of those practices that I think have been done really well on the business side would enable them to be stronger, make stronger decisions.”
Notable
- The Leadership Now Project was among the first groups to call on Joe Biden to drop his reelections plans in 2024, The New York Times reported.
- North Dakota passed a ballot measure that set an age limit for congressional candidates in 2024.
- Some experts say that term limits wouldn’t solve the core problems with Congress, NPR reported.