WASHINGTON, D.C. – Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz wants to place term limits on members of Congress, an idea that has long appealed to people across the political divide who have grown skeptical of the current crop of professional politicians.
But even if Cruz’s amendment to the U.S. Constitution were somehow enacted by the current Congress and the states – a long-shot at best – it would not bar him from running for a third or even fourth term in the Senate.
Nor would it bar fellow Texas Republican John Cornyn from running for a fourth Senate term in 2020.
That’s because terms beginning before final ratification would not count.
“The amendment, as drafted, would start the clock once it was ratified,” Cruz explained in an interview. “So term limits would begin at that moment.”
Cruz and Florida U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, a Republican, introduced an amendment last week to limit U.S. senators to two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to three two-year terms.
Cruz offered up a similar amendment in January 2017. It went nowhere, as have a succession of term limit proposals since the 1940s, experts say. Many are intended as messaging bills to make a political statement.
For Cruz, who was elected to a second term in November, exempting current lawmakers – at least for now – represents a concession to political reality.
“My personal preference would be to make it retroactive,” he said. “But as a nod to practical politics, it would be much, much more difficult to get this passed if the immediate consequence of it happening was to throw out a whole bunch of incumbents. It’s awfully difficult to get them to vote for it if they’d be immediately giving up their jobs.”
Cruz, who ran for president in 2016, said he would vote for a retroactive term limit proposal. But he’s not willing to voluntarily term limit himself like his 2018 opponent, Beto O’Rourke, an El Paso Democrat who left the House after three terms.
“I’ve long said that I don’t…
