ENGLISH FOR SENATE POSITION PAPER ON:

Congressional Term Limits and Mandatory Retirement

Some states have term limits for their Congressional respresentatives, others don't. Because leadership roles in the Congress are based upon seniority, states with term limits are at a disadvantage compared to states without term limits because their influence in Congress is diminished.  Seniority governs which members become committee chairmen and Congressional leaders.  Commitee chairmen control which legislation gets introduced, discussed and brought to the floor for consideration.

Recently, there have been instances when aged members of Congress have had to be carried onto the floor to conduct discussion and other spectacles of obvious infirmity which calls into question the fitness and competence of the aged members to function intelligently and rationally when conducting the nation's affairs.

I propose that a Constitutional Amendment be introduced for consideration that would limit combined service in one or both houses of the Congress to 25 years total, with a mandatory retirement age of 80.   If the Catholic church requires resignation of bishops at age 75 and cardinals at age 80, why shouldn't the Congress of the United States also? (also see the Public Funding of Elections Issue paper).

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