Published January 1992 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Term Limits: An Infringement Of Voters' Rights Recently, discussion has mounted concerning limiting the terms of members of Congress. However, a close look at Congressional term limits raises a number of serious reservations. Experience and skill are prerequisites for effective and judicious government. I am concerned that with term limits, longstaying bureaucrats in the Executive Branch would have an advantage over the people's elected representatives in Congress. Members of the bureaucracy are necessary to our system of government, but under mandated term limits, these bureaucrats -- who never have to answer to the voters at the polls for their actions or decisions -would become the most powerful and influential group in Washington. By forcing seasoned lawmakers out of office, term limits would also result in a shift of power and influence to unelected Congressional staff people, whose expertise and institutional memory would be in high demand due to the constant turnover of novice officeholders. As in the Federal bureaucracy, these staff people -- who would be unaccountable to the voters of any state or district -would then have a much greater opportunity and ability to influence the legislative agenda, mold the laws, and guide inexperienced and unwary new members of Congress toward priorities that the staff most favored. One of the most frequently heard arguments for limiting Congressional terms is that the current members of Congress have become entrenched in office. However, the fact is that over half the current members of the U.S. Senate have served less than two full terms, and over one-fourth of these have served less than one full term. Instead of advocating Congressional term limits, thoughtful citizens should remember that Americans already have the most effective possible means of limiting Congressional terms, simply by exercising their right to vote on election day. It is a sad commentary on the American political system that the national voter turnout in the 1990 Congressional elections was only 36 percent. An informed American public can be trusted to make the right judgment if citizens will only go to the polls on election day and exercise their privilege to vote. As Pericles said, in his eulogy to the Athenians who had fallen in the Peloponnesian War, "Our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters." January 8, 1992