Senate GOP extends term limits
By Noelle Straub
Facing the prospect of expiring term limits for the top positions on committees, Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to give themselves a partial reprieve.
The Republicans voted to keep their six-year term limit on committee chairmen, but to allow themselves another six years as ranking member if they haven’t had a chance to serve their full term as chairman.
![](http://www.hillnews.com/062602/visuals/bennett%20robert%206%2013%2002.jpg") |
| Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) |
|
|
The change is critical for those senators who have already spent six years as the top Republican on a panel — with the last year-and-a-half as ranking member, thanks to the party switch of Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) last June. It will allow them to retake their title of chairman if the GOP takes back control of the chamber in November.
The vote clarified a rule the Republican conference approved in 1995 as part of a package of reforms. It imposed a six-year chairmanship limit that took effect at the beginning of the 105th Congress in January of 1997.
By a decisive 32-14 vote Tuesday, the conference approved a measure submitted by Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah).
“There is a total limit of six years as chairman, a total limit of six years as ranking, but the six years as ranking are dependent on whether or not the six years as chairman have been filled,” Bennett explained. “Once you’ve served your six years as chairman, your opportunity to stand as the senior member of the committee is over, whether as ranking or chairman.”
He added, “While we wanted to limit the chairman opportunity to six years, we didn’t want to discourage somebody from serving as ranking while they were waiting for the chairman opportunity.”
Bennett’s rule also states that the two years of the current Congress will count only against the ranking member limit — despite the fact that GOP senators served as chairmen for the five months before Jeffords switched.
If the Republicans remain in the minority and a GOP senator has served six years as ranking member on a committee, he may no longer hold the ranking member position on that panel. But if the Republicans retake control of the Senate — even decades later — he may return to the chairmanship if he hasn’t served out his six-year chairman limit.
For example, Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) became chairman of the Appropriations Committee in January 1997, and remained there until the Jeffords switch.
If the Republicans retake control of the Senate in November, Stevens will become chairman again. If not, he can remain as ranking member for four more years — and become chairman whenever the Republicans regain the majority.
Stevens called the decision “very fair.”
A special case was made for Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), who had not chaired any panel but became ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee after Jeffords, who was chairman at the time, switched parties.
Gregg will start the next Congress without any time counted against his limits.
“The partial time he spent as ranking doesn’t count,” Bennett explained. “You have to be in that seat the whole Congress.”
The Republican conference voted down two other proposals. The first, sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), would have limited senators strictly to six years as the top Republican on a committee, whether as chairman or ranking member. A majority of the GOP senators — 25 votes — were needed for passage, and it was defeated 17-29.
Specter was in line to chair the Judiciary Committee after 22 years in the Senate without a chairmanship. But now, ranking member Orrin Hatch (Utah), who served as the panel’s chairman for four-and-a-half years, may regain the gavel if Republicans control the Senate.
The conference also voted 18-28 to defeat a measure by Sen. Gordon Smith (Ore.) that would have abolished term limits altogether.
A fourth measure, pushed by Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), would have allowed senators six years as chairman plus six years as ranking member. But Grassley withdrew his proposal once the voting began and it became clear that Bennett’s more nuanced approach had more support.
Although three Republican senators did not vote, the margins were wide enough so those votes would not have altered the outcome.
GOP Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (Pa.) said Bennett’s measure allowed both sides to walk away from the vote feeling like they had a victory.
“The middle ground tends to have more appeal than either extreme, because you’re involving personalities in many cases, and that probably had some influence on it,” he said.
Santorum said the debate, which divided the caucus, came about because of fundamental differences in the interpretation of the 1995 rule. “Frankly, we did not do a very good job six years ago in laying out exactly what we meant, and it was important to clarify that,” he said.
The rule simply said, “A senator shall serve no more than six years as chair and six years as ranking member of any standing committee.”
While Santorum wanted to issue a rules clarification to settle the matter, he said senators insisted on voting on the matter. But he added that senators remained composed during the conference meeting.
“It was a rather calm discussion,” he said. “I tried to recognize people for and against, back and forth, so we had good give-and-take.”
While Bennett said he thinks the issue is resolved, Santorum admitted the conference could revisit the issue at some point in the future.
“It’s never settled,” Santorum said. “It’s always up to the will of the conference.”