[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 48 (Wednesday, March 15, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              TERM LIMITS

  (Mr. METCALF asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, today's growing support of term limits is a 
recognition of Lord Acton's dictum, power corrupts and absolute power 
corrupts absolutely.
  Over 25-years ago I introduced a bill launching the fight for term 
limits. As a Washington State Senator, I saw that long-term service 
concentrates power in the hands of a few and reduces effective 
representation by the majority of any legislative body.
  Mr. Speaker, our representative system is based on the concept of a 
citizen Congress where people serve a limited time and then return home 
to live under the laws they have made.
  My State has passed and I support a 6-year term limit. Seventy-five 
percent of the people all around this Nation have decided that limiting 
terms will best allow them full representation in Congress.
  By passing congressional term-limit laws in the States, they have 
given us a mandate.
  Pass a term limit amendment for the Congress, as the Congress passed 
a term limit for the Presidency.


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