[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 48 (Wednesday, March 15, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          RETROACTIVE TERM LIMITS WOULD CLEAN OUT THE BARN NOW

  (Mr. GUTIERREZ asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, I often hear Republicans say that we need 
term limits because ``we need to clean out the barn.'' Look, I do not 
live on a farm, so I never use that phrase.
  But, when I hear someone else say, ``We need to clean out the barn,'' 
it sounds like something important, something that should be done soon. 
Not a few years down the road. But today. Now.
  So, I do not understand when those who have been in Congress for 12, 
20, 25 years say they support term limits, but they plan to stick 
around Washington a little longer, because these are the same folks who 
said, ``We have got to clean out the barn.''
  Fine.
  Grab a broom.
  Clean out the barn.
  But if it turns out that you are the one who is making the mess, you 
better get out of the barn, too.
  I urge Members who talk about term limits to support retroactive term 
limits, where we count your accumulated service as of today.
  That would turn term limits from rhetorical cheapshot into real 
change.
  Retroactivity cleans out the barn, now.
  

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