In recent months, the issue of Congress members’ age has come into the public eye, with videos of Senator Mitch McConnell freezing during speeches on multiple occasions, including during a speech August 30, and Senator Dianne Feinstein’s inability to cast her own vote on a bill both going viral. Both of the senators’ episodes are thought to have been caused by health issues that come with old age.

With both senators being of old age—Mitch McConnell is 81 years old and Dianne Feinstein is 90 years old—one has to wonder if term limits on senators are necessary. I certainly believe so. Not only would enforcing term limits on Congress members prevent elderly members from remaining in office, it would also give the American people more options in their leaders.
Generally, it is very difficult to beat the incumbent Congress members in elections. In the midterm elections of 2022, 100% of incumbent senators and 94.5% of incumbent House representatives were also reelected. Therefore, it is quite unlikely that an incumbent Congress member will be defeated, regardless of their age or ability to fulfill their duties. This can lead to there being Congress members who are frankly far too old to serve our country being re-elected, in large part because they are incumbent. If we enforced a term limit of 2 terms, or 12 years for senators and 6 terms, or 12 years for House representatives, the issue of Congress members being elected and remaining incumbent until they are physically incapable of serving the country would be solved, since they would be removed from office before they became too old.

Also, putting a term limit on Congress members would let new people with new ideas have a chance to be nominated for Congress. Political parties with an incumbent Congress member will almost always nominate the same person for the next election, as it is almost a guarantee that they will be elected again. This means that prospective candidates have nearly no chance to be nominated for election by a major political party, and since it is extremely rare for an independent to be elected, new candidates are almost never elected. This contributes to Congress members having views that do not represent those of their constituents, since they are often incumbents for many years and hold the views of older generations. If we instituted a term limit on our Congress members, we would allow new candidates into Congress far more often than we currently do, which would create a Congress that more fully represents the current views of our country.