Scott’s call for federal term limits likely won’t happen

TAMPA — Gov. Rick Scott’s first policy idea as a U.S. Senate candidate almost certainly won’t happen, and most of his fellow Republicans don’t support it.

Scott wants term limits for members of Congress: 12 years and no more in an entrenched system where power is determined almost entirely by longevity.

“In Washington, they say this can’t be done. That’s nonsense,” Scott says in his first campaign TV ad, standing before an outline of the U.S. with a red felt tip pen in his hand. “We don’t work for them. They work for us.”

Scott, 65, has seized on a popular issue in a race in which his opponent, Democrat Bill Nelson, 75, is a veteran of three terms in the Senate who was first elected to the Legislature in 1972, the year that President Richard Nixon won re-election.

There’s a reason why term limits don’t exist for Congress. It requires an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, an enormous political undertaking that would require the support of twothirds of members of Congress followed by three-fourths of the states.

“Scott is running on something that’s popular, but is almost impossible to make happen,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at University of Central Florida. “It's a symbolic thing, and he’s about 20 years late.”

Term limit proposals swept the country more than two decades ago. Florida voters in 1992 voted to impose eight-year term limits on all state legislators and Cabinet members.

The change created a revolving-door Legislature in which many House members spend years jockeying for Senate seats, and critics say term limits have made lobbyists and staff members more powerful.

Supporters of Florida’s “Eight is Enough” term limit law wanted it to apply to Congress, too.

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that Florida and every other state with term limits could not pass state laws that alter the qualifications of members of Congress.

Scott’s fellow Republicans are careful not to criticize the idea but are not enthusiastic and raised several concerns.

“If it was on the ballot or a vote up here, I would vote for it,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, who has signed term-limit pledges as a candidate. “But it would have to apply to every state. I wouldn’t want to unilaterally disarm Florida.”

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, RMiami, who’s in his eighth congressional term after 14 years in the Legislature, said steady turnover in the delegation ranks has effectively brought term limits.

This year alone, four members are retiring or running for another office. The 27-member delegation as a whole had trended toward newer members who will have to spend years climbing the ranks.

“I respectfully believe that our founders got it right. Unfortunately there are no term limits for lobbyists or for staff,” DiazBalart said. A member of the Appropriations Committee, he argued that seniority has helped

the state get federal money.

“I’m not going to be critical of what he wants to do,” DiazBalart said of Scott.

But he added, “One could argue if there were term limits, there would be no seniority. But is that a good thing, for the country to have no experience?” Rep. Vern Buchanan, of Sarasota, is in his sixth term, which would be his last under Scott’s plan. He laughed that he’d have another 12 years because the clock would reset.

“Politically, it works well,” Buchanan said. “You do want some people up here that have got some background and have been here for a while.”