by Nick Tomboulides
With assistance from U.S. Term Limits, Florida state legislators have officially filed bills calling for a Term Limits Convention, a single-subject Article V campaign to enact term limits on the U.S. Congress.
The bills, House Memorial 417 and Senate Memorial 630, were filed by State Representative Larry Metz (R-Groveland) and State Senator Aaron Bean (R-Fernandina Beach), respectively.
The bills’ language calls for a “convention under Article V of the Constitution of the United States with the sole agenda of proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to set a limit on the number of terms that a person may be elected as a member of the United States House of Representatives and to set a limit on the number of terms that a person may be elected as a member of the United States Senate.”
After the bills pass in Florida and 33 other states, the Term Limits Convention will be held only on the limited subject of proposing a term limits on Congress amendment. Any proposal it makes must then be ratified by 38 states to become part of the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. Term Limits President Philip Blumel, a West Palm Beach resident, hailed the introduction of these Florida bills as “the first big step toward delivering congressional term limits for the American people.”
“78 percent of Americans support the Term Limits Convention, including huge majorities of Democrats, Republicans and Independents,” he noted. “Thanks to Article V of the Constitution, state legislators have a way to make term limits into a reality without needing approval from Congress.”
Nick Tomboulides is Executive Director of U.S. Term Limits.