House of Representatives Serve for How Many Years
While Congress is made up of both the U.South. Business firm of Representatives and the Senate, members of each of these two bodies are elected to serve for unlike amounts of time. We're taking a look at how term lengths differ for officials elected to each function of Congress and delve into why the founders fix it upward that style. And we'll delve into the issue of term limits, which are laws that would limit how many times each member of Congress can run for reelection.
Term Lengths: Senate vs. Business firm of Representatives
While we vote for who should hold the office of president every four years, congressional elections work a little differently. Members of the House of Representatives simply serve ii-year terms, unless they are reelected. These reelections happen every even-numbered year.
Senators, however, get to serve for six years before they have to run for reelection once more. Their reelections are staggered so that you'll never run into every single senator up for reelection at the same fourth dimension. Instead, every fifty-fifty twelvemonth, but about one-third of the Senate comes upward for reelection after they've served their full six-year term.
How many terms tin can a member of Congress serve if they keep getting reelected? Currently, as many as they want. Unlike presidents, members of Congress are under no obligation to retire after serving for a sure number of years.
So, why do members of the House and Senate accept different term lengths? For answers, let'southward rewind. Back when the founders were figuring out how the government of the U.S. should be structured, they divided Congress into two halves then that each could serve a specific ready of needs.
The Business firm of Representatives is composed of elected officials from each state. The larger the population of the state, the more than representatives they get to elect. This was supposed to ensure that the overall population of the U.Southward. was adequately represented, no affair where they lived. I of the reasons that a House official'southward term is so short is to keep them on their toes, so to speak. Past more or less constantly being up for reelection, a House member's career depends on staying up-to-date with the preferences of their constituents.
Senate: Term Lengths and Limits
The Senate, on the other hand, is composed of 2 representatives from each state who each serve for a term of six years at a time. While the House of Representatives was designed to stay on height of the "pulse of the people," the Senate was intended to be a little more discrete.
Every bit James Madison put information technology, "If it not be a business firm body, the other co-operative existence more numerous, and coming immediately from the people, will overwhelm information technology." In other words, the Senate is in that location to make sure that the government isn't entirely dependent on the ever-changing whims and passions of the people.
In lodge to keep the Senate from feeling completely free to exercise their own thing, however, the founders decided on the thought of having 1/iii revolving elections every two years. That way, the Senate would ever exist stable, yet somewhat up for change.
What Are Term Limits?
If there is a two-term limit on the office of president, why isn't there 1 for members of Congress? Well, keep in mind that the presidential term limit didn't e'er exist. In fact, there were no term limits for federal officials at all for over the offset 150 years of U.South. history.
While the two-year term limit was sort of an unofficial presidential tradition, plenty of presidents ran for a tertiary term, but but one managed to get reelected. In fact, FDR was elected president four times — in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944. Information technology wasn't until February of 1951 that the 22nd Amendment was formally ratified to establish the two-term presidential limit as U.South. law.
Ironically, there actually were some Congressional term limits at one time, but they were eventually thrown out. In 1995, 23 unlike states had passed laws that limited how many terms their elected officials could serve in Congress. A politician from Arkansas, however, decided that he wanted the law thrown out in his country. Long story short, the issue went all the style to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was ultimately decided that states could not impose Congressional term limits on their representatives.
Should Congress Have Term Limits?
One of the primary arguments fabricated by the Supreme Court when they decided to toss state-imposed term limits was that that sort of thing should be done through a Constitutional amendment. As such, whether or non there should be such an amendment has become a matter of heated debate.
Those who support congressional term limits fence that doing so would keep anyone from becoming a "career pol." The idea here is that this would force members of Congress to concentrate more on their constituents' all-time interests rather than those of special interests groups or campaign donors. Term-limit supporters also argue that limiting the terms of those in Congress is more in-line with the original intent of the founders and the bulk will of the people.
Those who oppose term limits argue that since members of Congress tin can just go along to serve if re-elected, it should be upwardly to voters when to remove them. Some merits that term limits would piece of work against voters, by preventing them from keeping a representative they loved around long-term. Additionally, some argue that being a fellow member of Congress in and of itself is like whatsoever other career path and that representatives only get better with experience.
There is currently a joint resolution under consideration that would make congressional term limits a reality. Bank check out U.S. Term Limits for more information and to acquire how you tin can contact your representatives to voice your opinion.
Source: https://www.reference.com/world-view/length-term-senate-house-representatives-8c9b5deb7e2eefb2
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