[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 57 (Tuesday, March 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   TERM LIMITS: A CITIZEN LEGISLATURE

  (Mr. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, today in this body we begin a historic 
debate. Not since 1776 when the Framers of the Constitution first 
discussed the concept of a citizen legislature has the concept of 
limited terms been debated by those chosen to represent their 
respective States.
  It was during that historic debate that the gentleman from Virginia, 
George Mason, stated that:

       Elected representatives should be subject to periodical 
     rotation. For 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 and 
     where he must participate in their burdens.

  It is with that in mind that I challenge you, my colleagues, with 
remembering that 22 States have already enacted term limits for their 
elected Members.
  I urge you to support term limits and return this elected body to a 
citizen legislature.


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