Common Sense Term Limit Ideas for the Congress of the United States
Manage episode 405878177 series 3502449
To be elected, a representative must be at least 25 years old, a United States citizen for at least seven years and an inhabitant of the state he or she represents.
The Constitution sets three qualifications for service in the U.S. Senate: age (at least thirty years of age); U.S. citizenship (at least nine years); and residency in the state a senator represents at time of election.
Members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms and are considered for reelection every even year. Senators however, serve six-year terms and elections to the Senate are staggered over even years so that only about 1/3 of the Senate is up for reelection during any election.
Congressional districts are the 435 areas from which members are elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
There are 100 Senate seats, 2 for each state.
The compensation for most Senators, Representatives, Delegates, and the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico is $174,000. These levels have remained unchanged since 2009.
Term limits at the federal level are restricted to the executive branch and some agencies. Judicial appointments at the federal level are made for life and are not subject to election or to term limits. The U.S. Congress remains (since the Thornton decision of 1995) without electoral limits.
My suggestion for reasonable term limits would be to attract more people to serve, remove incentives for a life in politics, roll implementation in the House to mirror the Senate. This will preserve institutional knowledge which is critical.
To attract a higher quantitiy of everyday Americans to do the unthinkable
run for congress
leave their family
leave their business
I suggest increasing the pay to something very substantial, such as $$350,000 per year.
In addition, there would be heavy incentives and benefits to protect juobs and business during service so the Congressperson could return home to what they left.
Senators would be limited to 2 terms and Representatives to 6 terms.
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