For immediate release
December 13, 2017
Contact: Ken Quinn, U.S. Term Limits
Phone: (207) 713-8700
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Term Limits (USTL), the leader in the national movement to limit terms for elected officials, is gathering tremendous support from state lawmakers across the nation. Their goal… to call a national term limits convention for the sole purpose of imposing congressional term limits. Vermont is a key state in this effort, largely due to the work of House Representative, Robert Helm, (District 3), who signed USTL’s Article V Term Limits Convention Pledge.
The pledge is provided to all state legislators and candidates for state legislature and reads, “I pledge that as a member of the state legislature, I will support and vote for the resolution applying for an Article V convention for the limited purpose of enacting term limits on Congress.”
In addition to signing the pledge, Rep. Helm took action to sponsor the resolution. Helm asks, “Isn’t it time that we rethink congress? With congressional members making 174,000.00 per year, plus expenses and health care far above yours and mine, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some members of congress are in congress for 30,40, and even 50 years.” Helm continues, “Let’s look forward to a fresher, younger, less entrenched, and less partisan Congress. It’s time and term limits is the only way.”
USTL President, Philip Blumel, commented on Helm’s efforts, saying, “Robert’s support of term limits shows that there are legislators who are willing to listen to the majority of voters who want term limits. America needs a Congress that will be served by citizen legislators, not career politicians.”
In the 1995 case, Thornton v. U.S. Term Limits, the Supreme Court of the United States opined that only a Constitutional Amendment could limit the terms of U.S. Senators and House Representatives.
According to Nick Tomboulides, Executive Director of USTL, the best chance to impose term limits on congress is through an Article V Convention of state legislatures. “While we’d like for Congress to take the high road and impose limits on itself, our goal is to trigger a term limits convention,” claims Tomboulides. “That is why it is important to get support from state legislators,” he added. Once proposed, the amendment must be ratified by 38 states.
Blumel noted, “More than 75% of Americans have rejected the career politician model and want to replace it with citizen leadership. The way to achieve that goal is through a congressional term limits amendment. Representative Helm knows this and is willing to work to make sure we reach our goal.”
According to the last nationwide poll on term limits conducted by Gallup, the issue enjoys wide bipartisan support. The results demonstrate that 75% of Americans support congressional term limits. Gallup’s analysis states, “Republicans and Independents are slightly more likely than Democrats to favor term limits; nevertheless, the vast majority of all party groups agree on the issue. Further, Gallup finds no generational differences in support for the proposal.”
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