[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 58 (Wednesday, March 29, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SHOULD RETURN HOME AND MIX WITH THE PEOPLE

  (Mr. BRYANT of Tennessee asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BRYANT of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, another world-class women's 
team is the University of Tennessee. Go Vols.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in favor of term limits as a freshman 
Congressman who has been here 2 months and who has pledged to my 
district that I will limit my stay to 12 years. I have taken voluntary 
term limits.
  Mr. Speaker, the case for term limits is a simple one. As one of the 
Founding Fathers, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, put it, members of the 
legislature, ``ought to return home and mix with the people.'' He 
warned that if they did not, ``they would acquire the habits of the 
place, which might differ from those of their constituents.''
  How right he was. Once in office a survival instinct takes hold and 
nothing becomes as important as winning the next election. Members 
forget why they were sent to Washington.
  Mr. Speaker, term limits have been bottled up for years by the 
Democratic leadership, but it will finally come to the House floor 
today. But it will not pass unless we convince about half of the 
Democrats to vote with the over 80 percent of the Republicans to 
support term limits.
  I would hate to see term limits fail because of a lack of support 
from my colleagues on the Democratic side. We need only 50 percent of 
them to vote with us on this. Let us not let term limits fall victim to 
a lack of bipartisan effort. Let us seize the moment. Let us pass term 
limits.


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