Phoenix – On Monday, February 17, the Arizona House Federal Relations committee passed a resolution to term limit Congress. HCR 2016, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Townsend, passed on a party line 4-3 vote.
The resolution does have the has the backing of at least 21 lawmakers in the Arizona State Legislature who have pledged to support the initiative.
However, final passage remains an uncertainty as this bi-partisan measure was killed by Senate Republican Leadership each of the last two years. In 2018, then Senate President Steve Yarbrough refused to allow the full Senate to vote on it even though supporters had a solid majority and in 2019, Senate President Karen Fann and Senate Majority Leader Rick Gray would not allow the bill onto the Senate floor for a vote. With the same leadership in place, it remains uncertain what the bill’s outcome will be, in spite of historically high support for the issue among Arizona voters.
“More than 82% of Americans have rejected the career politician model and want to replace it with citizen leadership,” stated Nick Tomboulides, Executive Director for U.S. Term Limits (USTL). “The way to achieve that goal is through a congressional term limits amendment. The Arizona lawmakers who signed our pledge know this and are willing to work to make sure we reach our goal.”
Supporters of the term limit resolution cite a nationwide poll on the subject conducted by McLaughlin & Associates in January 2018, which found that term limits have wide bipartisan support. McLaughlin’s poll found that 82 percent of voters approve of a constitutional amendment that will place term limits on members of Congress.”
There are fifteen states that have passed resolutions for a national amendment proposal convention specifically naming term limits in the subject.
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