Press Releases
Arrington Holds Term Limits Special Order
Washington, DC,
September 11, 2018
Tags:
Conservative Values
– On Thursday of last week, Congressman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) held a special order to discuss the need for a Constitutional amendment that would limit the number of terms an individual may serve in the United States Congress. He was joined by Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Congressman Tom Marino (R-PA).
During the special order, Arrington started his remarks by stating, “George Mason, a patriot, said, ‘Nothing so strongly impels a man to regard the interest of his constituents as the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people from whence he was taken where he must participate in their burdens.’ Translation: the founding fathers wanted us to come up here and do the people's business and then go back home to the farm and ‘live under the rules we passed.’
Arrington believes that the American people “want us to come up here and represent the people, their interest, the public's interest, America's interest - no other. They wanted us to come here with a singular purpose, and that is to do what is right and good for the American people and to have the courage to step up to the plate because every generation is called to do so and make the sacrifices and make the tough calls and take on the tough issues of the day and solve them, even if that causes you to have a shorter political career than you anticipated. That is the theme of this special order, Mr. Speaker. It is term limits.
“There are too many forces that pull us as members in directions other than doing what is best and right for this country and for the people we came here to represent. There is an ideal way, and we are off the mark from that ideal, from the spirit and the intent of what George Mason said in that quote and what our founding fathers believed from the very outset.
“Mr. Speaker, like my colleagues who will speak here in a moment, we didn't run just to re-arrange the furniture in the People's House. We ran to make a real difference to advance real reform so that this country and its leaders could govern and solve problems and move this nation forward. My greatest calling, I believe, isn't just to advance reforms to education or to health care or to the tax code. This is a season for reforming this institution first and foremost.
Expressing the need for cultural change, Arrington continued by stating, “we're long overdue, but I think the time is right for structural, fundamental, systemic reforms to the United States Congress. As a new Member and as a new generation of Member, I cannot tell you how excited I am to stand with my colleagues today, Republican and Democrat, and talk about one of those structural reforms that I think will strike at the heart of some of the problems with Washington and the culture of Washington. Woe to me and any member who comes up here just to change the course of this country and not do anything to affect the broken culture of this body. It's incumbent upon us to do that, to change this broken culture.
“We believe that above and beyond tax code reform, bettering the healthcare system and limiting regulatory burden, we have to change this institution.
Arrington then argued, “our founders never intended these public servants to be career professional politicians. They didn't want a permanent political class to rule the land from Washington. Instead, they envisioned this sort of ‘citizen legislator’ way of leading, in serving, then living back among our brothers and sisters.
“Look at George Washington and the example he set by custom, by tradition. When asked to serve more than two terms as President, he said, we got rid of a King George. We won't need a King George. I wanted to serve my people as President. It's time for me to go back to the farm. For 100 years that custom was honored, and then F.D.R. ran for a third and fourth term, and the people reacted, and we have the 22nd amendment to the Constitution - we have term limits on our presidents.
“There was a recent survey, as recent as February of this year, where over 80% of the American people, Democrat, Republican, Independent, say that this initiative of term limits being effectuated in an amendment to the Constitution would make this institution run better and would change the culture for the better, and they support it. I'm old-fashioned enough to believe that if 80% of the American people want something, they ought to get their chance to at least debate it and vote on it.”
The bipartisan group of Members that joined Arrington stated the following:
Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA): “Too many of whom have lost faith in this institution, and for good reason. We can make those changes. This is exhibit A of what we need to do to fix a broken system, to restore that trust - an 80% issue. How dare we not address, on the floor of this House, an issue that addresses the root cause of our problems that is supported by 80% of the American people? We have to get this done.”
Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI): “It’s my belief that the founders intended service at the federal level to be a season of service… Good citizens who love this country aren’t even willing to run because they see it as such an insurmountable task. That shows how far we’ve gotten away from the model of the citizen legislature.”
Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA): “If you have term limits and if you take the careerism out of it and if people know they will have about a decade to have an impact, you’re going to encourage more efforts to find that common ground, more efforts to be willing to compromise when it makes sense to the nation, to look for some overlap in issues.”
Congressman Tom Marino (R-PA): “The framers of the Constitution were not full-time legislators. They were businessman. They were entrepreneurs. They were farmers. They were inventors… We need new ideas from new members, women and men, young and not so young.”
|