Idaho weighing whether to push for term limits in Congress with resolution

BOISE, Idaho — Should federal lawmakers have term limits? A state lawmaker wants Idaho to join growing momentum among states calling for the change in Congress.

State Rep. John Shirts, a Republican, introduced a resolution this week that, if passed, would move Idaho into a formal position that U.S. senators and U.S. representatives should be allowed to serve only a certain number of years in office. Shirts’ bill does not identify what that total should be, but requires Congress to begin the formal process of setting limits.

“The hope for this … to change the Constitution is to get enough states to effectively get Congress to propose term limits, and then to be able to send it back from the state,” Shirts told a House committee Tuesday.

Since 1951, with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment, U.S. presidents are limited to two four-year terms and a total of 10 years in office. Congress enacted the change and sent it out for state approval not long after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death three months into his fourth term. Before him, no other U.S. president had served more than two terms.

Members of Congress have no such limitation. U.S. senators serve six-year terms, and U.S. representatives serve two-year terms.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that term limits could be enforced for U.S. senators and representatives only with a similar change to the Constitution. Individual states may not impose restrictions on someone’s time in federal office, the justices said in a 5-4 decision.

The year before, voters in Idaho approved a ballot initiative and became one of a handful of states to establish term limits, including for its federal officeholders. Senators were held to two terms (12 years) and representatives to three terms (six years).

State officeholders, including legislators, were limited to eight years. Under the rule, candidates could not run again if they had served for eight or more years in a 15-year period.

The U.S. Supreme Court determined that state limitations — Idaho’s and otherwise — for Congress were unconstitutional. Term limits on state officeholders remained, however.

Subsequent Idaho voter initiatives, in 1996 and 1998, required that election ballots include language on whether federal candidates had pledged to support term limits. In 2002, the Idaho Legislature overrode a veto from then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, a Republican, to eliminate term limits for state officeholders — making Idaho the first state to do so, The New York Times reported.

In 2017, then-U.S. Rep. Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho, supported term limits and pitched a bill to hold U.S. senators to two terms and representatives to six terms — each totaling 12 years in office. Congress never took up his resolution for a vote.

But in 2018, while the four-term congressman unsuccessfully ran for Idaho governor, Labrador again pushed for term limits in the state.

“In Idaho government, political connections sometimes impact how policies are developed and contracts are awarded. Sweetheart deals and special favors have become both costly and normal,” Labrador told The Idaho Statesman during that campaign. “Cronyism and favoritism have no place in government.”

Now serving in his first term as Idaho’s attorney general, Labrador did not return a request for comment from the Statesman.

Serving his fifth term, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, believes Idaho would be at a “severe disadvantage” if it set term limits and other states did not, Kyra Smith, his spokesperson, told the Statesman in an email. But Crapo would abide by them if they became law, she said.

Idaho’s three other federal delegates, all Republicans, are each up for reelection in 2026 — U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, and U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher. Risch, 82, is seeking his fourth term in the Senate, while Simpson, 75, is seeking his 15th term in the House, and Fulcher, 63, is seeking his fifth term.

None of the three incumbents returned requests for comment, including from their campaigns. Crapo, 74, is not up for reelection again until 2028.

Congress is widely known as a government body where members are regularly reelected and serve beyond retirement age. Presently, there are 128 House members and 57 senators who are 65 or older, and two dozen members of Congress are 80 or older. The U.S. House has more than 150 members who have served at least 12 years. Nearly half of the Senate, 46 members, has served 12 years or longer.

Campaign opponents are mixed on the issue of term limits, though.

Kaylee Peterson, a Democrat running against Fulcher, has taken a pledge to advance efforts to limit U.S. senators to two terms and representatives to three terms. She cited polling that suggests a majority of Americans support term limits.

“That broad agreement is why I believe term limits are a necessary step toward restoring accountability at the highest levels of government,” Peterson said in a statement.

Sarah Zabel, an independent also challenging Fulcher, told the Statesman that she opposes congressional term limits. Such a requirement on officeholders could actually be harmful, she said.

“When people are dissatisfied with their own representation, they need to find a better candidate,” Zabel said in an email. “Incumbency is powerful, but without a better candidate, you are just cycling through a series of unsatisfying choices.”

Todd Achilles is a former Democratic state lawmaker running as an independent against Risch. Between the U.S. Senate, Idaho Senate, and as governor and lieutenant governor, Risch has served 47 years in public office.

Achilles said he signed a pledge to serve no more than two terms in the Senate if he is elected. He and Josh Roy, who first faces Risch in the Republican primary, each said they support Shirts’ bill.

“We know how to do it,” Achilles told the Statesman by email. “If Idaho voters send to Congress independents committed to term limits, instead of recycling career politicians, then we can enact the change Americans demand.”

If passed by a two-thirds vote, so 34 of the 50 U.S. states, Congress would be required to hold a constitutional convention to set term limits for its seats. So far, just 12 states have approved such a resolution, according to a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit calling itself U.S. Term Limits.

Another 17 states — including Idaho with Shirts’ bill — are considering such legislation this year, the nonprofit reports. If all approved it, that would increase the total to 29, just five states short from the number needed to force Congress to act.

The bill to commit Idaho in the effort to create congressional term limits advanced to a future public hearing. The vote was 11-4, with two Democrats in support, and one against. Nine Republicans, including Shirts, voted in support, and three voted in opposition.