Longtime Democratic lawmakers are set to oppose a plan by a group of new lawmakers to impose term limits on House leadership and committee chairmanships in the horse-trading to give Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the speaker’s gavel.
“I’m not for term limits,” Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Monday as he walked into the House chamber to vote. Hoyer has served in the No. 2 leadership since 2002 and was elected to serve as majority leader when his party takes over January.
Hoyer and many other lawmakers could be dethroned if a group of rebel lawmakers are successful in negotiating with Pelosi to impose leadership limits in a deal that would ensure that a sufficient number of them agree to elect her speaker in the new Congress.
“I’m not ready to comment right now because the negotiations are ongoing,” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who is among those leading the charge for term limits, told reporters Monday.
Moulton and other more recently elected Democrats want to shake up the leadership and end the lock on committee chairmanships that has prevented newcomers from moving more quickly into more powerful positions.
House Republicans limit chairmen and ranking members to three terms, and the Senate GOP limits both committee chairmen and lower leadership posts to three terms. But Democrats have resisted imposing term limits.
Pelosi has served in the Democratic leadership since she was elected minority whip in 2001.
The No. 3 Democrat, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., has been in his post since 2003, when he began serving as vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus. He is now the assistant Democratic leader and was just elected to serve as majority whip in January, a position he held from 2007 until 2011.
The committee leadership has changed due to retirements, but there are currently no limits on chairmanships.
Veteran lawmakers oppose term limits on the grounds they earned chairmanships and are not interested in relinquishing the posts they fought hard to win.
The opposition is particularly acute in the Congressional Black Caucus, which includes many long-serving lawmakers.
“Most of my colleagues who are going to be chairs of committees have been here a long time,” Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, said. “And they have waited their turn. And so it’s almost like, in many other instances, when a black person gets to a certain position the rules are changed.”
In a separate interview, Clyburn, who is a member of the Black Caucus, told the Washington Examiner he’d meet with the group about the matter and “be wherever they are” on term limits.
Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, D-Texas, another member of the caucus, downplayed the need to discuss term limits and said it should be postponed until the new Democratic majority has a chance to work.
“I believe in listening to both sides but frankly … let’s let the leadership work and talk about assessing the leadership going forward,” Lee said. “I don’t feel a wealth of enthusiasm about it.”
Pelosi would not comment on the term limit discussions when pressed for comment by reporters as she walked into the House chamber to vote Monday. Her office declined to comment.
Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., who is poised to become the assistant Democratic leader in January, said the caucus “will have a very thorough conversation about this,” but would not indicate whether he supported such a plan.
Fudge, who had launched a short-lived run for speaker against Pelosi but now backs her, said she’d at least look at the plan.
“It should be something that’s discussed,” Fudge said. “I don’t know what it accomplishes, but it’s a big caucus, it’s a diverse caucus, we need to hear everybody’s opinions.”
