For immediate release
January 4, 2018
Contact: Ken Quinn, U.S. Term Limits
Phone: (207) 713-8700
Bridgton, ME — Yesterday, the State of New Hampshire House of Representatives filed a concurrent resolution that would help bring about the Term Limits Convention, an initiative to place term limits on members of Congress. By using Article V of the U.S. Constitution, 34 state legislatures can team up for a convention to propose a congressional term limits amendment. The Term Limits Convention campaign in NH was launched by the grassroots group U.S. Term Limits in November.
The House resolution (HCR-12) is sponsored by Rep. Wallace, Rock. 33 and Rep. Howard, Belk. 8.
The President of U.S. Term Limits, Philip Blumel commended Wallace and Howard for working together on such an important issue. Blumel said that “The people of New Hampshire are lucky to have public servants who see what is going on in Washington and are willing to take action to fix it. By using Article V to term limit Congress, they can restore balance between the states and the federal government as our Founders intended.”
Blumel also noted the high popularity of congressional term limits, which receive 82% support from Republicans, 79% support from Independents and 65% support from Democrats nationwide, according to the most recent survey from Gallup.
In the 1990s, U.S. Term Limits assisted in successful campaigns to term limit 23 states’ congressional delegations by individual ballot measures. The Supreme Court ruled in the 1995 case U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton that these measures were unconstitutional, and that congressional term limits can only be imposed by constitutional amendment.
If successful, New Hampshire will be among the first states in the nation to pass an Article V resolution for the exclusive purpose of putting term limits on the U.S. Congress. The resolution must pass the next step in the process, for which a public hearing in front of the House State-Federal Relations Committee, is slated for January 17, 2018 at 11:00 AM in room LOB 206.
The bill text is located here.
Since 34 states must call for the Term Limits Convention to make it happen, U.S. Term Limits has spread its grassroots resources across the country. In addition to New Hampshire, the non-profit group is also targeting eleven other states.
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