For immediate release
January 17, 2018
Contact: Ken Quinn, U.S. Term Limits
Phone: (207) 713-8700
U.S. Term Limits Applauds Maine for Filing Article V Term Limits Application
Augusta, Maine — The State of Maine Legislature has filed a resolution that would help bring about the Term Limits Convention, a non-partisan 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 house resolution (HP-1232), sponsored by Rep. Nathan Wadsworth (R) and co-sponsored by Rep. Stephen Stanley (D), was introduced January 16th and was referred to the State and Local Government Committee.
Wadsworth remarked, “For me this is a no-brainer. Congress has run amok. They’re not listening to us. They’re falling more and more in debt and we need to act now before it’s too late.”
The resolution’s co-sponsor, Democrat Rep. Stephen Stanley added, “I think it is very important that we can’t have people in Congress for 40 years. That’s not a good way of running government. Ideas have got to change.”
In addition to cosponsoring the legislation, Wadsworth and several other Maine House members have signed the U.S. Term Limits Amendment pledge. Provided to candidates and members of state legislatures, it reads, “I pledge that as a member of the state legislature, I will support and vote for the resolution applying for an Article V convention for the limited purpose of enacting term limits on Congress.”
The President of U.S. Term Limits, Philip Blumel commended Maine House Representatives Wadsworth and Stanley for their bi-partisan cooperation on such an important issue. Blumel said that “The people of Maine 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 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 happen by constitutional amendment. Since it is unlikely that Congress will pass term limits on itself, the states have the power to propose the amendment at a national term limits convention.
If successful, Maine will be among the first states in the nation to pass an Article V resolution for the exclusive purpose of putting term limits on Congress.
View HP-1232 here.
View Wadsworth’s signed pledge here.
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U.S. Term Limits is a national grassroots non-profit advocacy group focused on imposing term limits at all levels of government, particularly on the U.S. Congress by means of a term limits convention to propose an Congressional Term Limits amendment to the U. S. Constitution.