[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 154 (Tuesday, September 26, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H7496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              TERM LIMITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Indiana (Mr. Hollingsworth) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOLLINGSWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of 
legislation that an overwhelming number of Americans--75 percent, in 
fact--not only support but demand of this body. The issue is term 
limits. The time is now.
  It has become more and more transparent to Hoosiers back home that 
this city, and even sometimes this building, no longer reflects the 
ideals, the morals, and the values that they share in their 
communities. The people demanded representation that truly represents 
their interests. They are tired of elected officials being seduced by 
the trappings of their office, forgetting the reason they were sent to 
this hallowed Chamber. Ultimately, the American people have seen that 
many Members vote in consideration of sometimes interests that are 
divergent from theirs back home.
  Since I first entered public life, I have been a vocal proponent of 
term limits. I believe that in order for this body to truly serve the 
people back home, the hardworking Hoosiers every day trying to make 
ends meet, that they need to be responsive to those people, they need 
to listen to those people, and, ultimately, they need to relate to 
those people.
  Yet, the American people are not the only ones calling for term 
limits. As we all can remember, President Trump crisscrossed this great 
Nation, sharing his vision on how he could make America great again. He 
agreed with the chorus of American voices that were calling for term 
limit legislation for the United States Congress. I support President 
Trump's agenda in term limits.
  Mr. Speaker, I have heard the voices of Hoosiers back home who 
desperately wish to see this legislation passed, who desperately want 
to see their Representatives representing their interests and their 
values. That is why, as one of my first actions as a Member of this 
body, I wrote legislation that would sponsor a constitutional amendment 
levying term limits on Members of Congress.
  Additionally, I have cosponsored every piece of term limits 
legislation that reflects actual term limits that is available in this 
body.
  Furthermore, I so strongly believe in this issue that I went door to 
door during the course of my campaign handing out term limits pledges 
that I would sign personally at the over 15,000 doors that I have 
knocked on during the course of my elected official office. I have 
continued to sign those term limits, talking to each one about how we 
can ensure that their interests and their values are fully represented 
here.

  Now, the positions that we hold here in this Chamber are not 
bequeathed to us by status, by lineage, or by heritage, but, rather, 
the positions we hold--every single one of us--are based on the ideas 
that we presented to the American public and based on the values that 
the American public said they wanted represented.
  I want to make sure that we continue year in and year out to be 
responsive to those ideas and to be responsive to those values. Too 
frequently, I hear in my district that they feel like Washington, D.C., 
has values that are inconsistent with theirs. That the toxic 
environment they sometimes believe that exists in Washington, D.C., 
hasn't gotten them the results that they have demanded election after 
election.
  Now, I am an old business guy, a manufacturing guy by trade, so I 
always think about how the process of creating policy could be better, 
not just fixing the policies at the end of the line, because no one 
would run a manufacturing business where you have a process and then 
you just fix the widgets at the end of the line. But, instead, they 
would focus on how we manufacture policy in a better way.
  The American people and Hoosiers back home have said how they think 
we could manufacture policy in a better way. They have said that they 
want to see terms limits legislation passed so that the manufacturers 
of policy will reflect their values, will reflect their concerns, and 
will reflect what they live, breathe, and feel every single day.
  What I hear, when I go back home and travel my district every single 
weekend, is that Washington, D.C., has become flooded with self-
interests--self-interests that drive the boat forward instead of 
American interests propelling us forward into better and better policy.
  I think the quickest way to correct that failure here in D.C. is to 
consider and pass term limits. When 74 percent of Americans agree--that 
is not 74 percent of one side of the aisle or 74 percent of the other 
side of the aisle, but that is 74 percent of Americans agree on 
something--then I think in a democracy that something should get done.
  The Framers of our Constitution did not intend for Members of this 
body to remain seated for 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years, but rather they 
fundamentally believe that government should be designed, one of the 
people and for the people, to experience regular turnover. Ultimately, 
the greatness of this country has always rooted in the American people 
themselves, and I want to get more of those American people up here 
serving in elected office.

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