Four state representatives from New Hampshire’s Rockingham 16 district—Tom Dolan, Sherman Packard, Douglas Thomas, and David Lundgren—have pledged their support for congressional term limits. The pledge was organized by U.S. Term Limits (USTL), a national nonpartisan group focused on imposing term limits for members of Congress.
The USTL pledge states: “I pledge that, as a member of the state legislature, I will cosponsor, vote for, and defend the resolution applying for an Article V convention for the sole purpose of enacting term limits on Congress.”
In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled in Thornton v. U.S. Term Limits that only a constitutional amendment could set term limits for federal lawmakers. Nick Tomboulides, CEO of USTL, explained that amending the Constitution requires proposals either from two-thirds of Congress or two-thirds of state legislatures through an Article V convention.
“The Constitution allows for amendments to be proposed by either 2/3 of Congress or 2/3 of the states. While we’d like for Congress to take the high road and propose term limits on itself, we know they are too self-interested to do that without external pressure,” said Tomboulides. “That is why it is important to get buy-in from state legislators,” he added. Once proposed, the amendment must be ratified by 38 states.”
Tomboulides also noted broad public support: “More than 87% of Americans have rejected the career politician model and want to replace it with citizen leadership. The way to achieve that goal is through a congressional term limits amendment. Tom, Sherman, Douglas and David know this and are willing to work to make sure we reach our goal.”
A recent Pew Research poll found strong bipartisan backing for congressional term limits; according to Pew’s analysis: “An overwhelming majority of adults (87%) favor limiting the number of terms that members of Congress are allowed to serve. This includes a majority 56% who strongly favor this proposal, just 12% are opposed.”
U.S. Term Limits describes itself as the largest nonprofit organization dedicated solely to advocating for legislative term limits at the federal level.
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