Trump’s vow to impose term limits for Congress faces daunting hurdles
Of all the promises made on the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to pass a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress might be the most daunting.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed the idea out of hand the day after Trump’s victory, and a few days later, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., gave the proposal a tepid endorsement as he indicated it would be up to a House committee to consider Trump’s proposal.
The reticence of both Republican leaders on the issue is not surprising given their long tenures in Congress. McConnell has served in the Senate since 1985, and he is one of just five sitting senators to have served more than three decades. With almost 18 years under his belt on Capitol Hill, Ryan would essentially be booted out of office under almost every term-limit proposal that has been floated in the past 25 years.
Democrats generally oppose term limits, making it difficult to see a path toward the two-thirds supermajority required to pass a con- stitutional amendment that would get sent to the states for ratification.
What remains to be seen is whether Trump uses the presidential bully pulpit to continue pressuring Congress to adopt the idea, along with other ethics and lobbying reform proposals he unveiled last month in a campaign speech in Colorado.
The resurrection of term limits is all part of Trump’s “Drain the Swamp” agenda, aimed at cleaning up what he sees as a rigged system in Washington ruled by lawmakers with close bonds to K Street. But if the new president follows through with some of his proposals, and continues his fiery antiestablishment campaign rhetoric, he could end up alienating the very Republicans he needs to help pass his other ambitious proposals on taxes and border security.
Trump could decide to try to shame lawmakers into at least voting on a proposal. He was the least popular person to ever win a major party’s presidential nomination, but the public disgust with Congress is even larger, with an approval rating that has hovered in the low teens for six years now.