‘So frustrated:’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis calls for new national amendment

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – This week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took to the podium to advocate for changing the U.S. Constitution.

DeSantis gave a keynote address at a “Term Limits Summit” in Delray Beach, pushing state legislators from around the country to support a new amendment that sets up congressional term limits.

“People are so frustrated with what goes on in Congress,” he said. “And honestly, yeah, Republicans may be less frustrated when it’s Republicans. Democrats may be less if it’s Dems. But I don’t think anyone’s really happy with just how the modern Congress operates.”

During his speech, DeSantis argued that Congress members’ “incentives” need to change from focusing on reelection to focusing on effective legislation.

“I think if you had term limits, I think people would go on a mission. They know they’re gonna be there for six years in the House,” he added. “And maybe they run for Senate. But even if not, man, you’re going to want to have something to show for it."

Earlier this year, DeSantis made similar calls when he visited lawmakers in Ohio to discuss the issue for a proposed amendment.

Last year, Florida lawmakers passed a resolution (HCR 693) with that same aim in mind.

While term limits have been established in Florida and 22 other states, that’s not the case at the federal level.

That’s because of a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which posited that congressional term limits may only be imposed if the U.S. Constitution is amended.

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To do so, two-thirds of the states can request a convention to propose such an amendment, though it would have to be ratified by at least 38 states before it could take effect.

That said, DeSantis said that it might not even take that many states to get Congress to take action.

“Well, what would happen if you got to 31, 32 states? I mean, Congress would end up passing it,” DeSantis posited. “I think they would want to control, and I think what they would do is probably pass what we want, but they would just say, ‘All current members are not subject to it until a certain time or new people are elected.’”

As of now, only 12 states — Florida, Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin — have passed resolutions in both houses of their Legislatures, calling for a U.S. Term Limits Convention.

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