The One Idea That Unites America Is the One Congress Will Never Vote On

There is exactly one policy in America that unites Republicans, Democrats, and independents, the coasts and the flyover, the young and the old: congressional term limits. An independent University of Maryland survey pegged support at 83% — 86% of Republicans, 80% of Democrats, 84% of independents (Program for Public Consultation, 2023). Ipsos found 79% (Ipsos, 2022). Even U.S. Term Limits’ own pollster clocked 83%, against a rounding-error 7.9% opposed (USTL/McLaughlin, 2025).

The holdouts, statistically speaking, are the 535 people who would have to sign their own eviction notice.

The standoff is almost too on-the-nose. In U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995), the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that states may not term-limit their own delegations — so the only lawful path runs through Congress itself, or a convention of 34 state legislatures (Ballotpedia). Rep. Ralph Norman’s H.J.Res.12 would cap the House at three terms and the Senate at two, with a Ted Cruz companion. It has cleared 100 cosponsors and, faithful to a 30-year tradition, exactly zero floor votes (Congress.gov). The amendment is now serving longer in committee than most of the members it would retire.

The convention route is likewise a study in incline: U.S. Term Limits reports 14 states have passed its single-subject application — still 20 short of 34 (USTL tracker). Gov. Ron DeSantis flew to Ohio in May 2025 to lobby for it in person (Florida Governor’s Office, 2025).

Meanwhile, the disconnect the whole thing exists to fix keeps setting records. Congressional approval sank to about 10% in Gallup’s April 2026 poll — a whisker above the all-time low of 9% — with disapproval tying its record 86%, after the longest government shutdown in history (43 days) (Gallup, 2026). And in 2024, the same electorate that loathes the institution reelected about 98% of the incumbents who run it (Ballotpedia News).

The defense has turned creative. The Brookings Institution warns limits would cause a “brain drain” and hand power to unelected lobbyists and career staff (Brookings) — a striking worry in a town where the lobbyists already outnumber, outlast, and out-earn everyone on the ballot.

There is a reason this requires a constitutional amendment rather than an ordinary law, and it is the most-forgotten fact in the whole debate. Twenty-three states once did impose term limits on their own members of Congress — passed by referendum, by large margins, in the early 1990s. In 1995 the Supreme Court struck every one of them down in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, holding 5–4 that states may not add qualifications for federal office beyond those the Constitution lists. Voters tried the direct route. The Court closed it. What remains is an amendment — which must pass the very body it would evict.

Hence the second route, and its arithmetic. Under Article V, 34 state legislatures must apply before a convention can be called, and 38 must then ratify whatever it produces. U.S. Term Limits counts 14 states that have passed its single-subject congressional term-limits application. Kansas became the 20th state in 2026 to pass the broader multi-subject version. Resolutions were introduced in at least 15 more. That is real momentum and it is still, after three decades, fourteen states short.

Meanwhile the direct route stays open in the narrowest sense. H.J.Res.5 and H.J.Res.12 sit in the 119th Congress right now, proposing exactly the amendment 83% of Americans say they want. Neither has received a floor vote. Neither has ever received a floor vote. A joint resolution needs two-thirds of both chambers — which is to say it needs roughly 290 representatives and 67 senators to vote, in public, to shorten their own careers.

Eighty-three percent agree. The buffet has, once again, declined to vote on portion control.