U.S. Term Limits holds pledge signers accountable. We monitor their votes and, particularly in Congress, we track who cosponsors our resolutions. We also track other term limits bills to see if signers sponsor a resolution that would be in conflict with ours.
While nearly every signer keeps their promise, this year we had two outright refuse to cosponsor the legislation and two additional members who took it a step further and cosponsored their own competing term limits bills.
Despite making a promise to their constituents, both U.S. Representatives Lori Trahan of Massachusetts and Young Kim of California have indicated they have no intention of cosponsoring our term limits bill. Trahan cosponsored the appropriate resolution her first session after some coaxing. However, her second term, she has publicly stated she is breaking her pledge.
Taking the broken promise a step further
This session, two representatives not only did not cosponsor the bill for which they promised, they took breaking their pledge a step further and cosponsored competing resolutions, which is explicitly forbidden in the pledge.
“Claudia Tenney of New York and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin pledged to support our amendment of three terms in the House and two terms in the Senate and no more,” said Philip Blumel, President of USTL. “Yet, once they were elected, they decided to ignore the promise they made to their constituents and actually sponsor bills with much longer terms. Voters are tired of politicians who make promises to get elected and then fail to keep them.” Blumel continued, “Our resolution for six years in the House is based on what Americans want. When asked if they preferred 12-years or 4-years as a second choice, they resoundingly opted for shorter terms…not longer.”
According to Legislative Director Shanna Chamblee, Rep. Tenney claims that the “voters are uneducated and do not understand politics” in Tenney’s response to the assertion that 82% of America wants term limits on Congress.
As a consequence, all four representatives have earned a broken promise billboard in their districts. The billboards are part of a broader campaign aimed at informing the public where candidates and lawmakers stand on term limits for Congress. USTL remains committed to holding politicians accountable for their promises and ensuring that the voices of term limits supporters are heard.