Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to limit the number of consecutive terms that a Member of Congress may serve.

Bill: 118-hjres-20
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Van Orden, Derrick [R-WI-3]
Introduced: 2023-01-12
Policy area: Congress
Subjects: Congressional elections

Constitution and constitutional amendments

House of Representatives

Members of Congress

Senate
Latest action: action_date: 2023-01-12
text: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Summaries:
action_date: 2023-01-12
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p>This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment to limit the number of consecutive terms that a Senator or Representative may serve. Senators who serve two consecutive terms and Representatives who serve six consecutive terms become ineligible to serve until the second Congress that begins after their last consecutive term.</p> <p>This term limit shall not apply to any Member in the 118th Congress unless there is a break in the Member's service.</p> <p>Additionally, if a person is appointed to fill a vacancy, the appointed term does not count towards the consecutive term limit unless the person serves more than three years as a Senator or one year as a Representative.</p>

tv_txt: IA 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. J. RES. 20 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 12, 2023 Mr. Van Orden submitted the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to limit the number of consecutive terms that a Member of Congress may serve.

That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification: — 1. No person who has been a Senator for two consecutive terms shall again be eligible to serve as a Senator until the second Congress that begins after the end of such second consecutive term. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, a person who is a Senator during the period beginning with the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress may serve as a Senator for an unlimited number of consecutive terms, but shall not again be eligible to serve as a Senator until the second Congress that begins after the end of the person’s final consecutive term of that period. 2. No person who has been a Representative for six consecutive terms shall again be eligible to serve as a Representative until the second Congress that begins after the end of the sixth consecutive term. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, a person who is a Representative during the period beginning with the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress may serve as a Representative for an unlimited number of consecutive terms, but shall not again be eligible to serve as a Representative until the second Congress that begins after the end of the person’s final consecutive term of that period. 3. For purposes of this article, any term a person serves as a Senator or Representative to fill a vacancy shall not be included in determining the number of consecutive terms that the person has been a Senator or Representative unless the period of time for which the person fills the vacancy is greater than three years in the case of a Senator or greater than one year in the case of a Representative. .