Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis called on elected officials across the country to move toward amending the United States Constitution and requiring term limits for Congress.
DeSantis met with lawmakers associated with U.S. Term Limits, which works to “enact and defend term limits on elected offices at all levels of government,” and asked states to pass resolutions calling for term limits in Congress. He said during the event that voters across the country supported the move during his recently suspended campaign for the White House.
“We need term limits for members of Congress. Florida has already certified a proposed amendment under Article V of the Constitution and other states are poised to follow suit,” DeSantis, himself a former member of Congress, said in a statement.
The amendment to the Constitution would require two-thirds of state legislatures to approve the effort and would not need authorization from Congress. The legislatures of Florida, as well as Alabama, Missouri, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, have already passed resolutions calling for a convention of states, while other legislatures have “such a resolution passed in a single chamber or before their legislative bodies for a vote,” according to the office of DeSantis.
The official added that “we will never turn our country around” unless the “incentives” in the government are changed and said “term limits are supported by huge majorities of Americans.”
Some 87% of adults indeed believe that the number of terms one can serve in Congress should be limited, according to a recent survey from Pew Research Center. Members of the House and Senate can currently serve an unlimited number of two-year and six-year terms respectively.
DeSantis recently called for additional amendments to the Constitution in the interest of limiting the “derelict federal government,” including a balanced federal budget, line-item veto authority for the President, and “equal laws for the public and members of Congress.”