Revolving door of congressional term limits would handicap states like South Dakota
From left, U.S. Sen. John Thune, U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds and U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, all Republicans of South Dakota, talk about agriculture policy at Dakotafest in Mitchell on Aug. 21, 2024. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
It only stands to reason that a bunch of elected officials who are term-limited would believe that terms limits are good for everyone. That's the case in the South Dakota Legislature, where both chambers endorsed House Joint Resolution 5002. It calls for a national constitutional convention to create an amendment that imposes term limits on members of the U.S. Congress.
HJR 5002 was approved by votes of 42-24 in the House and 25-10 in the Senate. Joint resolutions don't require the signature of the governor. The Legislature's action did earn praise from U.S. Term Limits, an organization pushing for a constitutional amendment determining how long members of Congress can serve.
It takes 34 states to call for a constitutional convention. Now South Dakota is one of 10 states that has endorsed USTL's version of the amendment. Nineteen other states have endorsed congressional term limits, but their language has to be made to conform with USTL's or the entire effort will just become a jobs program for lawyers.
USTL would like to see members of the U.S. House limited to three two-year terms and members of the U.S. Senate limited to two six-year terms. That's quite a change for an institution that has some members who make a career out of getting reelected.
'Term limits provide fresh faces with fresh ideas to elected office,' USTL says on its website. 'They reduce lobbyist and special interest influence and make room in Congress for the citizen legislator.'
The citizen legislators in South Dakota's Legislature are limited to four two-year terms in each house, though they are allowed to try to jump to the other chamber after eight years. Legislators here became subject to term limits with the passage of an initiated constitutional amendment in 1992. Many of the faces in both chambers have changed due to term limits. However, many of the same lobbyists are still hanging in there, ready to offer their brand of guidance, expertise and institutional memory to each group of newbie lawmakers.
Chances are that congressional term limits would make lobbyists more important rather than less powerful, as claimed by USTL. Term limits would also place more emphasis on the expertise of government bureaucrats. After all, co-President Musk and DOGE can't fire them all.
The prospect of congressional term limits is worrisome for a small state like South Dakota. This is particularly true in the U.S. Senate, where longevity leads to power. If term limits were already the law of the land in Washington, D.C., there's likely no way that Sen. John Thune would rise to be the Senate majority leader.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Granted, Thune's tenure so far hasn't exactly been a profile in courage as the Senate confirmed a group of Fox News has-beens and conspiracy theorists to serve in President Trump's Cabinet. Still, it will be good to have someone from South Dakota in a position of authority to look out for the state's interests when Congress tackles the next farm bill.
The battle cry for term limits is usually based on the power of incumbents and how tough it is to kick the bums out of office. Some of the same South Dakota legislators who embraced HJR 5002 proved last year that incumbency is not all that it's cracked up to be.
The ditches of South Dakota roads are littered with Republican incumbents, tossed aside by voters in last year's GOP primary. All the new faces in this year's Legislature prove that, as they always have, voters hold the true key to term limits.
By design, amending the U.S. Constitution takes time. With just 10 states signed on for its version of the term limits amendments, USTL has a long way to go. For small states it may be best if USTL never reaches its goal. Through the years, South Dakota has enjoyed the Senate leadership of Tom Daschle and now John Thune. It's hard to see how our small state could be in that position of power if the U.S. Capitol were to install a revolving door.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
House Narrowly Passes DOGE Cuts After Flipping Two Holdout Republicans
House Republicans secured a 214-212 vote to advance the 'DOGE cuts' package that includes $9.3 billion in cuts to foreign aid and public media. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tensions rising in GOP over Trump border plan as Rand Paul squares off with Stephen Miller
A bitter feud is escalating between Republican Sen. Rand Paul and Donald Trump's top border official, injecting uncertainty into Congress's attempt to pass the administration's signature policy bill this month. Key Trump adviser Stephen Miller came to Capitol Hill to meet with Senate Republicans on Thursday to resolve a major issue over the bill's border security provisions – which Paul opposes. Paul and Miller have been locked in a dispute for days over the border funding. The White House is seeking $150 billion in funds for border security and deportation. But Paul – who has repeatedly lashed out against the price tag of Trump's bill – wants to dramatically cut down that funding. Now, that tension between the two key GOP figures is spilling into the open. Paul is taking swipes at Miller to reporters on Capitol Hill, attacking Miller for his recent comments about the administration looking at suspending habeas corpus and then suggesting on Wednesday that Miller himself was the reason he was uninvited from a White House picnic. Trump has since personally asked him and his family to attend the Thursday event, the senator said. Miller, meanwhile, has been firing off social media posts at the Kentucky senator, accusing him of, for instance, trying to cut funding for border security amid the Los Angeles riots. 'They want to quiet me down, and it hasn't worked, and so they're going to try to attack me. They're going to try to destroy me in other ways, and then do petty little things like social occasions or whatever. But you know, it probably will not work. It probably will not make me cow down or bend over,' Paul told CNN on Wednesday, after saying he was disinvited from the White House picnic. Asked if he was talking about Miller, Paul nodded. Paul's strong push to limit Trump's border security cash puts him mostly on an island among Hill Republicans, according to one person familiar with the talks, though other GOP senators pressed Miller about specific funding accounts in a meeting earlier Thursday. And the back-and-forth has frustrated some of their fellow GOP senators. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Miller 'did a good job' answering GOP senators' questions on Thursday about border wall money, but he added some Republicans 'were upset' or 'just didn't want to hear it.' 'I mean, Rand Paul's solution is cut everything in half and call it good. Yeah, that's not real budgeting,' Mullin added. Paul, however, has defended his stance, insisting that the White House needs to justify its funding request, especially since it was made before Trump came into office. And he specifically called out a certain GOP senator whom he accused of being a fiscal hawk only when 'convenient.' 'Senator Graham wants to make sure the president gets exactly what he wants. He's a rubber stamp, and I am a believer that we are acting fiscally responsible at every level of government, across government, and that you can't just sort of be fiscally conservative when it's convenient, when it comes to the border,' Paul told reporters Thursday. Paul did not attend Miller's visit to Senate Republicans on Thursday, citing a conflicting committee meeting. Even so, the meeting at times grew contentious over the president's plans to spend billions on the border. Florida Sen. Rick Scott, offering a defense of his GOP colleagues, said those Republicans were interested in more specifics about how the border money would be spent. 'I think what everybody was pushing back is we want more detail. I know exactly how the money is going to be spent. It's not, has nothing to do with whether we support him,' Scott said. One of those probing Miller on the border funding was GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, another fiscal hawk who has been working to make sure Trump's pricey tax breaks don't add to the deficit. 'The numbers didn't quite add up,' Johnson later told reporters of his questions to Miller. 'He did a really good job of explaining why it is going to be more expensive, but then just how difficult it is going to be to create the beds and the expense of that.' 'There was just some basic numbers that we weren't aware of. We didn't have the math. We didn't have their calculation. I think he was a little blindsided from that standpoint.'
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Republicans, including Sen. Lee, push to rein in D.C. sanctuary policies as anti-ICE protests heat up
WASHINGTON — A local law preventing D.C. police from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on deportations could be overturned as congressional Republicans seek to rein in sanctuary city policies nationwide. The House passed the District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act on Thursday, seeking to end sanctuary policies that block D.C. police from assisting ICE with arrests and bans. The bill would also overturn local laws prohibiting city officials from releasing detained individuals to ICE or allowing ICE to interview a suspect in D.C. custody without a judicial order. 'My bill requires the District of Columbia to comply with federal immigration law. What's wrong with that?' Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., who led the bill, said in a floor speech on Wednesday. 'We shouldn't have to bring this to the floor. We shouldn't have to explain these things. But we are going to ... require that our nation's capital comply with our nation's federal law.' The bill was introduced in early March, but its passage comes as immigration law enforcement and sanctuary city policies have become a political flashpoint in recent days. Protests and riots broke out in Los Angeles last weekend after ICE agents carried out raids in several locations across the city, prompting outrage from city residents. Although protests began peacefully, several turned violent after local law enforcement was called in to help quell the crowds. The protests have since spread across the country, and Republicans have renewed their calls to crack down on sanctuary city policies by urging stricter enforcement of immigration policies. 'It's sad that Gov. Newsom and Mayor Bass decided it was more important to refuse cooperation with ICE and posture against President Trump than make LA safe,' Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told the Deseret News in a statement. 'I hope other blue states and cities avoid this mess by complying with federal immigration law and not tolerating any rioting or violence.' Lee has been at the forefront of reining in the D.C. government, hoping to reassert congressional authority over the nation's capital. Lee has consistently introduced legislation that would end the city's autonomy and has also promoted the BOWSER Act — ironically named after the city's mayor — to reclaim authority over the city's public safety. 'I'm glad that the House of Representatives is considering the District of Columbia Federal Immigration Compliance Act, so that our nation's capital can set a better example,' Lee said. 'The D.C. Council has proven itself incapable of keeping the city safe, and my BOWSER Act handing the reins back to Congress is our best bet to restore dignity and order to Washington.' Republicans have pushed for years to claw back D.C.'s autonomy by overturning the Home Rule Act. Despite not being a state, Washington is permitted to operate as an independent city government under the D.C. Home Rule Act. However, local laws are still subject to congressional approval before they can take effect, occasionally setting up showdowns between Congress and local lawmakers. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., has been a leading voice on that issue in the House, successfully passing a bill in 2022 that would repeal the amended criminal code for the district that he argued was too soft on crime. That bill passed both chambers of Congress despite Democratic control of the Senate and was eventually signed by former President Joe Biden. President Donald Trump has expressed support for reining in D.C.'s local control, paving the way for Republicans to use their GOP trifecta in Washington to do so. 'I remain committed to reforming the unconstitutional and failed experiment of D.C. Home Rule,' Clyde told the Deseret News in a statement. 'Our nation's capital city is still in dire need of strong leadership and commonsense policies. Congress must continue using its constitutional authority over Washington's affairs to ensure America's capital city is a safe and prosperous place for years to come.' The bill now heads to the Senate, where it will require at least seven Democrats to buck party lines to support the measure. However, Democrats have supported bills to rein in the D.C. government before — and 11 Democrats in the House voted in favor of the bill on Thursday.
