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


                        THE VOTE ON TERM LIMITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I want to also join with my 
colleague, the gentleman from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, who I 
think spoke eloquently about the fact that the fight is not over. We 
may have fallen short tonight by not having 290 votes, but we had 208 
votes, which as compared to years ago when they had 107 votes, we are 
much closer to our goal.
  The Contract With America pledged to the American people that the 
House Republicans would bring this to a floor vote, and we are pledged 
to getting a successful 290 votes. This is going to happen one day.
  Remember what brought us to this point. Forty years of Democratic 
rule in the House has created an institution less accountable by the 
American people. The longer Members have served in Congress, the more 
removed they become to the people who elected them. That lack of 
accountability in prior Congresses forced an environment that resulted 
in corruption of the House bank and the House post office.
  Those scandals, along with Congress' inability to balance the budget 
and control runaway deficit spending, have rallied a significant 
majority of the American people in support of term limits. Term limits 
will end careerism in Congress. The Founding Fathers never envisioned 
the House as a House of Lords, but rather as a citizen legislature.
  Term limits provide real choices for voters. Term limits do not 
restrict voter choices. On the contrary, they create more choices. 
After California, for instance, passed its term limits in 1990 for 
State legislators, the number of candidates running for office 
increased by 40 percent.
  The American people also overwhelmingly support term limits. That is 
why tonight we should have passed it. There should have been more 
Democratic support for this legislation. Eighty-three percent of the 
Republicans supported it and only 18 percent of the Democrats. Yet poll 
after poll shows overwhelming support for term limits, in some polls as 
high as 85 percent of the public. There are already 22 States that have 
adopted term limit laws.
  Finally, I would say this, Madam Speaker. The term limit laws are 
already imposed on other political offices. There is legal precedent 
for this. The President is limited to two terms of offices. Thirty-five 
States impose term limits on their Governors, as they do in our State 
of Pennsylvania.
  I would ask those listening tonight and those in the gallery and my 
colleagues who are still here in the Chamber and those in their 
offices, consider when this legislation is brought back up, if you were 
not part of the movement to make the change, please talk to your 
constituents, talk to your friends and neighbors, and realize that 
along with the kinds of reforms we are going to have with franking and 
the gift ban and with campaign reform, this is just one more reform 
that the American people want us to do, because they realize that 
Congress can be accountable and can be accessible, and with their help 
and God's, we will make the final reform of term limits.

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