Term Limits
As we celebrate Term Limits Day in America on Feb. 27, commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the ratification of the 22nd Amendment which imposes a limit of two terms on the presidency – it is a good time to take stock of just what an absence of legislative term limits has contributed to our society.
Congressional term limits had been passed in as many as 24 states as of 1995 when the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional (US Term Limits v. Thornton). Justice Clarence Thomas brilliantly wrote of this ruling in his dissent, “Nothing in the Constitution deprives the people of each State of the power to prescribe eligibility requirements for the candidates who seek to represent them in Congress. The Constitution is simply silent on this question. And where the Constitution is silent, it raises no bar to action by the States or the people.” But deprive us they did.
So, what have we gotten since that ruling? At the beginning of the 104th Congress in 1995, the average age was approximately 52.2 years for both the Senate and House of Representatives combined. By contrast, at the start of the 119th Congress in January 2025, the average age is approximately 58 to 59 years old, making it one of the oldest in U.S. history.
In addition to seeing the average age of a lawmaker jump 7 years, the 119th Congress has a significant number of members over 70, with 120 members in this age range. More importantly, leadership in recent years – like Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Harry Reid – are all amongst the oldest members of the legislature, setting the legislative agenda for an entire nation that is on average half their age.
That gulf between the age and perspectives of the rulers and the ruled is a valid one, not to be reduced to simple “ageism.”
Perhaps the most important impact of having term limits banned by judicial fiat has been that on national spending. Unbridled by term limits, lawmakers have been unleashed to spending with abandon. In 1995, the total outlays for the American federal government amounted to $1.52 trillion. Fast forward to 2025 when the total outlays are now north of $7 trillion a year, more than a 360% increase in national spending in the 30 years since term limits were wrested from the American public.
No one describes this dynamic better than late convicted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Abramoff says of a term-limit free Congress, “When I was a lobbyist, I hated the idea that a congressman who I had bought with years of contributions would decide to retire. That meant I had to start all over again with a new member, losing all the control I bought with years of checks. If you want to see pigs screeching at the trough, tell them they cannot stay there forever. There’s no trough as dangerous as the one in Washington.”
Nick McNulty
Windham, NH
