[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 19 (Friday, February 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E302-E303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REPEAL 22ND AMENDMENT TO U.S. CONSTITUTION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 17, 2005

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I am introducing today a joint resolution to 
repeal outright the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. The 22nd 
Amendment requires that no person who has served two terms or has 
served two years of another President's term be permitted to serve 
another term of office.
  The time has come to repeal the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, 
and not because of partisan politics. While I am not a

[[Page E303]]

supporter of the current President, I feel there are good public policy 
reasons for a repeal of this amendment. Under the Constitution as 
altered by the 22nd Amendment, this must be President George W. Bush's 
last term even if the American people should want him to continue in 
office. This is an undemocratic result.
  Under the resolution I offer today, President Bush would not be 
eligible to run for a third term. However, the American people would 
have restored to themselves and future generations an essential 
democratic privilege to elect who they choose in the future.
  A limitation on the terms that a President could serve was not fully 
discussed by the Founding Fathers. However, Alexander Hamilton, in 
Federalist Paper 72, recognized that one important benefit of not 
having term limits on the President would be:

     to enable the people, when they see reason to approve of his 
     conduct, to continue him in the station in order to prolong 
     the utility of his talents and virtues, and to secure to the 
     government the advantage of permanency in a wise system of 
     administration.

  After President George Washington retired after serving two terms, a 
custom emerged that was not broken until President Franklin D. 
Roosevelt was elected to four terms. The people chose President 
Roosevelt because they desired trusted and effective leadership.
  We do not have to rely on rigid constitutional standards to hold our 
Presidents accountable. Sufficient power resides in the Congress and 
the Judiciary to protect our country from tyranny. As the noted 
attorney and counsel to Presidents, Clark Clifford, said:

       I believe we denigrate ourselves as an enlightened people, 
     and our political process as a whole, in imposing on 
     ourselves still further disability to retain tested and 
     trusted leadership. The Congress and the Judiciary are now 
     and will remain free to utilize their own countervailing 
     constitutional power to forestall any executive overreaching.

  Furthermore, a ``lame duck'' President serving in his second term is 
less effective dealing with the Congress and the bureaucracy than a 
President should be. I do not believe that the people want a popularly 
chosen President who will be weakened in a second term. The removal of 
the President from politics as prescribed by the 22nd Amendment has the 
effect of removing the President from the accountability to political 
forces that come to bear during regular elections every four years.
  The 22nd Amendment reflects a fundamental distrust of the judgment of 
the American people. However, trust of the good sense of the people is 
one of the cornerstones of democracy.
  In 1820, Thomas Jefferson wrote: ``I know no safe depository of the 
ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we 
think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a 
wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to 
inform their discretion.''
  I believe the repeal of the 22nd Amendment will restore power to the 
people themselves and make our Constitution more democratic. 1 hope my 
colleagues will join me in this effort.

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