[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 58 (Wednesday, March 29, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3971-H3972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               A HISTORIC NIGHT WITH VOTES ON TERM LIMITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Seastrand). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Graham] is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. Speaker, rather than to try to make a speech, I just 
have a few minutes of reflection on what I think happened tonight and 
what is going to happen in the future.
  It is a historic night. The Contract With America said we would allow 
votes on term limits, and we did. Now it is up to the public to see who 
voted and how they voted on all the votes. If you really want term 
limits, you are going to have to act on what the body did tonight. If 
you think there is some correcting that needs to be done, it is up to 
you to do it.
  I can assure you this, after having been here almost 100 days, that 
this body is not going to give in to the will of the people easily. 
There is plenty of blame to go around, and the numbers speak for 
themselves. Eighty percent of the Democratic Party voted against final 
passage on this bill. Eighty percent of the Republican Party voted for 
final passage. Those are pretty compelling numbers. However, to be 
honest, Mr. Speaker, there is
 shared blame here. The Republican Party needs to push term limits 
harder, from the bottom and the top. My class, 73 Republican freshmen, 
about 90, 95 percent of us believe in term limits and believe in it 
deeply. I admire people who disagree with me who have equally strong 
beliefs, and they do exist, but what we have to do as a party is to get 
more focused and make sure the bill does not get messed up in committee 
and have to explain our positions here and get off track.

  I think we will learn something from tonight, that we will be more 
focused next year, and when the vote comes in the first part of the 
105th Congress, that we will be more focused as a party and we will 
really, really push for term limits.
  The good news is that people have voted, they are sort of out in the 
public's eye now, and you can determine who is with you and who is 
against you. The bad news is that the people who are not members of a 
term limits organization, and I do feel sorry for those people who are 
Members of term limits organizations that have worked so hard to get 
their message across, that it fell short, but the average, everyday 
citizen who is not a member of anything, other than maybe their church, 
who is trying to raise their kids, trying to make it through life, we 
let them down. That is what really bothers me the most.
   [[Page H3972]] The only hope that we have in changing this country, 
in my humble opinion, is to pass some form of term limits. I ran on 
four issues. I am the first Republican to be elected in 120 years in my 
district. I ran not so much on Republican-Democrat differences, and 
they are great, and I am very proud to be a Republican, but I ran on 
the idea of let us change Congress for the good of our country.
  Let us have a balanced budget amendment and make sure both parties, 
regardless of who is in control, spend within their limits. Let us give 
the President of the United States, regardless of party, the line-item 
veto so he or she can strike from our budget pork barrel projects to 
get us reelected, which both parties can succumb to.
  Let us make every law in the land apply to every Member of Congress, 
so we will understand what it is like to live in America, not just in 
Washington, DC, in a protected class.
  The fourth institutional reform I ran on was term limits. After being 
up here 100 days, that is the cornerstone of reform. We need to have 
people come to this body with a different motivation, with a different 
mind-set. People should come here wanting to make the world where they 
came from better, not the world in Washington better for themselves. 
The game should not be ``How can I become a committee chairman or 
subcommittee chairman?'' The game should be ``How can I make my 
community better, how can I make my Nation better, and go home?''
  There are so many people in America who have been denied the 
opportunity to serve in this body because when you are an incumbent, 
the money is great. I agree with the gentleman about lobbying reform 
and finance reform. I came from a State, South Carolina, where 18 
people went to jail, who served in the General Assembly, for taking 
bribes. We have the strongest ethics law in the country. You can 
operate government and have reform, lobbying reform, campaign finance 
reform. I am for that.
  However, the gentleman who just spoke misses the point for the needs 
of term limits. It works hand-in-hand. Money is a problem, but 
motivation is the real problem. People come up here and get trapped in 
the world which they become a part of, Washington, DC. It is unlike any 
world I have ever been in in my life. People spend money up here like 
you are not going to make it anymore. It is the most detached place I 
have ever been. It is so different from the world that I know.
  The only way you are going to change our country, in my opinion, is 
to make sure that people come up here for a limited period of time and 
that they are working on improving the world from which they came.
  Term limits, unfortunately, in many ways, is the only vehicle I know 
to bring that about. I am optimistic in 1996 that the votes of the 
American public will reflect the votes tonight, and that there will be 
a correlation between the people who defied the will of the American 
people in this body and those who get reelected on both sides of the 
aisle.


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