For immediate release
March 21, 2017
Contact: James Alvarado
Georgia State Director, US Term Limits
Phone: (770) 376-0772
Email: jalvarado@termlimits.com
Atlanta, Georgia – Politicians go to Washington, D.C., but if they stay too long they get disengaged from their constituents, says one of the sponsors of a Congressional term limits resolution in the Georgia legislature.
“I think you can stay there too long and forget the issues that are important back home,” said State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome.
“Our Founding Fathers went to Washington, D.C. for a few months and then came back home to their regular jobs. But now these elected offices have turned into full-time careers. I think we need some turnover. It’s time for people outside of Washington, D.C. to get elected and come forth with their own fresh ideas,” Hufstetler said.
“This should not be a career. It should be a time of service, and we should bring in different people to offer their services,” he went on to say.
Hufstetler sponsored a Georgia Senate resolution calling for a term limits Amendment on Congress. That resolution passed the state senate last year, but it has still not seen the light of day in the Georgia House. The bill, SR195, is being held up in the House Rules committee and must be scheduled for a vote before Friday, March 23.
State Rep. Micah Gravley, R-Douglasville, is sponsoring the resolution in the state house. Once SR195 passes the House, Georgia would be one of the 34 states required to trigger a term limits amendment proposal convention, as outlined in Article V of the U.S. Constitution.
The amendment must then be ratified by 38 states for it to be adopted as part of the Constitution. Two of Georgia’s neighbors, Alabama and Florida, have already passed congressional term limits applications exclusive to term limits. Other states are well on their way to doing the same.
Hufstetler said Georgia residents need representation at the convention and he hopes they don’t have to go without. “There is no mandate that anything happen. I do believe we need to come together and have this discussion,” Hufstetler said. “I like how the Georgia legislature works. We are here for 40 days and then we go back home to our careers. That is a good setup. I don’t plan on being a career politician here either.”
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U.S. Term Limits is the largest grassroots term limits advocacy group in the country. We connect term limits supporters with their legislators and work to pass term limits at all levels of government, particularly on the U.S. Congress. Find out more at termlimits.org.