EMERSON TO BACK TERM-LIMITS BILLS

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson said she plans to vote for every term-limits measure the House of Representatives considers, but not a single measure has enough support for passage.

The House will vote on at least a dozen term-limits proposals, Emerson said Tuesday during a conference call with news reporters. The measures vary in the maximum number of terms representatives and senators would serve and in whether they would apply to current lawmakers.

"The fact of the matter is throughout the campaign and since my first day in Congress I have pledged to support term limits because the voters of Missouri have said they want term limits," Emerson said. "Because I am for term limits I will vote for every bill there is."

She said the immediate future looks bleak for the term-limits movement.

"I suppose what will happen is that this will play into the hands of people who don't want term limits," Emerson said.

The first-ever vote on term limits in 1995 went down in defeat 227-204, falling 63 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass constitutional amendments. That measure called for limits of 12 years each for representatives and senators. Emerson touted those limits during her campaign last fall.

"I can't vote against something I feel strongly about," Emerson said.

She also said limits should be retroactive to apply to terms already served, preventing lawmakers already over the limit from running again.

Among proposals being considered is an amendment to limit representatives to three, two-year terms and senators to two, six-year terms. It was filed by freshman U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., introduced an identical measure in the Senate Tuesday.

Under the so-called "scarlet-letter" initiative that Missouri voters approved in November, members of Congress who fail to support the three, two-year limits will have the label "disregarded voters' instructions on term limits" appear next to their names on the next election ballot.

Voters in eight other states approved similar initiatives. The measures face legal challenges in five states but not Missouri.

Emerson said she is not fond of the scarlet-letter provision but will support it as well.

Term-limits supporters need to get behind a single proposal, said Emerson. Too many lawmakers are holding fast on certain provisions rather than trying to hammer out a proposal with a realistic chance of passage, she said.

"This has poisoned the well, I think, at least for the short term. It is in the interests of the movement that we all come together," Emerson said.

While turnover in the House has been high since 1990, Emerson said there are still a number of lawmakers who, with 10 or 12 terms under their belts, have been there too long.

"I was originally for term limits beginning several years ago when the turnover in Congress was much less frequent than it is now," Emerson said. "I still feel very strongly that we need to get new blood into the system."

Since voters still overwhelmingly support term limits, Emerson said Congress should be responsive to their wishes.