Statutory Term Limits on Congressional Pay and Power Act

A Member of Congress (including a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to the Congress) who has served 12 or more cumulative years in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, as the case may be, may not, on and after the date that the Member reaches 12 years of service in the Member’s respective House of Congress, be eligible for any covered benefit described in subsection (b).

A covered benefit described in this subsection is any of the following:

(1) Any payment otherwise required to be made with respect to a pay period for the compensation of the Member of Congress under section 601(a) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 4501).

(2) Serving as the chair or ranking minority member of any standing or select committee in the House of Representatives or the Senate or in a House or Senate leadership position.

In this section, the term House or Senate leadership position means any of the following:

(1) The head of any office of the House of Representatives for which the appropriation for salaries and expenses of the office for a fiscal year is provided under the heading House Leadership Offices in the act making appropriations for the Legislative Branch for the fiscal year involved.

(2) The President pro Tempore, Majority or Minority Leader, Majority or Minority Whip, chair of the Majority or Minority Conference Committee, or chair of the Majority or Minority Policy Committee of the Senate.

This section is enacted by Congress—

(1) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, and as such are deemed a part of the rules of each House, respectively, but applicable only with respect to the procedure to be followed in that House in the case of a joint resolution, and they supersede other rules only to the extent that they are inconsistent with such rules; and

(2) with full recognition of the constitutional right of either House to change the rules (so far as relating to the procedure of that House) at any time, in the same manner, and to the same extent as in the case of any other rule of that House.

The prohibition under this section shall apply with respect to the One Hundred Twenty-First Congress and each succeeding Congress.