The congressional term limits petition drive is a coordinated campaign, led primarily by the group U.S. Term Limits, that asks voters to pressure their state legislatures and members of Congress to enact a constitutional amendment capping how long a person can serve in the U.S. House and Senate. Signing a petition does not, by itself, change any law. It is a lobbying tool aimed at the only two mechanisms that could actually impose limits: a two-thirds vote of both chambers of Congress, or a convention called by two-thirds of state legislatures under Article V. Public support is overwhelming — 87% of Americans back the idea, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey — but no term limits amendment has ever cleared either path.1Pew Research Center. How Americans View Proposals to Change the Political System
Why a Petition Can’t Do It Alone
Voters in nearly two dozen states tried to impose term limits directly in the early 1990s. The Supreme Court shut that route down in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, decided 5–4 on May 22, 1995. Justice Stevens, writing for the majority, held that the Constitution’s qualifications for congressional service — age, citizenship, and residency — are fixed and exclusive, and neither Congress nor any state may add to them.2Justia. U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779 After Thornton, a term limit on federal officeholders can only come through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
That is why the petition campaigns you see are all aimed at pressuring lawmakers rather than at putting the question on a ballot directly. There is no national ballot initiative for the Constitution. Every signature is meant to move a legislator.
The Two Paths Any Amendment Must Take
Article V provides exactly two ways to propose a constitutional amendment. Congress can pass one by a two-thirds vote in both chambers. Or two-thirds of state legislatures — 34 states — can submit applications asking Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments. Whichever route produces the proposal, three-fourths of the states (38) must then ratify it before it becomes part of the Constitution.3National Constitution Center. Interpretation: Article V All 27 existing amendments came through Congress. The convention route has never been used.4Congress.gov. Article V – Amending the Constitution
Because Congress has repeatedly declined to send an amendment to the states — a term limits proposal won a simple majority in the House in 1995 but fell short of two-thirds — advocacy has increasingly turned to the convention path.5Britannica. Congressional Term Limits Debate
The Article V Convention Drive
U.S. Term Limits promotes a standardized, single-subject resolution that a state legislature can pass to apply for a convention limited to the topic of congressional term limits. As of mid-2026, 13 states have adopted this single-subject application: Florida, Alabama, Missouri, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Dakota, Indiana, South Carolina, and Kansas. Another 20 states have passed broader multi-subject convention applications that include term limits alongside other topics, though the organization’s strategy is to convert those into single-subject resolutions to reduce legal ambiguity.6U.S. Term Limits. Progress
Recent activity has been concentrated in 2025 and 2026. Indiana’s Senate passed SJR 21 by a 31–18 vote in January 2025, and the resolution ultimately cleared the full legislature; Indiana also enacted a companion measure, Senate Enrolled Act 450, that sets rules for delegate selection and limits what its convention commissioners may vote on.7Indiana Capital Chronicle. Indiana Call to Amend Congressional Term Limits Into Constitution Gains Ground8Indiana Citizen. Right Time or Risky: Lt. Gov. Beckwith, Others Praise Indiana’s Call for Article V Convention on Term Limits South Carolina passed a similar delegate-control law, H. 3558, over the governor’s veto in June 2026, after the House cleared it 76–29 in March 2025 and the Senate 38–2 in May 2026.9South Carolina Legislature. H. 3558 Arizona’s House passed HCR 2043 on a bipartisan 31–28 vote in February 2025, the first time such a measure advanced through that chamber.10Arizona Capitol Times. House Passes Article V Measure to Limit Congressional Terms
The campaign remains 21 states short of the 34 needed. Resolutions were introduced in at least 15 additional states in early 2026.6U.S. Term Limits. Progress
The Bills in Congress
Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Ralph Norman reintroduced their proposed amendment in January 2025. It would limit senators to two six-year terms and House members to three two-year terms.11Office of Sen. Ted Cruz. Sen. Cruz, Rep. Norman, Colleagues Introduce Constitutional Amendment to Impose Term Limits for Congress12GovInfo. H.J.Res. 1213Congress.gov. S.J.Res. 1 – Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution14Office of Sen. Katie Britt. U.S. Senators Katie Britt, Ted Cruz Reintroduce Constitutional Amendment to Impose Term Limits for Congress As of mid-2026 both bills remain in committee, and neither chamber has scheduled a vote.
What Signing a Petition or Pledge Actually Does
U.S. Term Limits runs several instruments a supporter can sign, and they aim at different targets.
The national and state petitions collect signatures to lobby state legislators to pass the single-subject Article V application in states that have not yet done so.15U.S. Term Limits. Take Action These are the most direct point of leverage a voter has right now, because the convention drive advances one statehouse at a time.
The congressional pledge is signed by candidates and sitting members of Congress, not voters. It commits the signer to co-sponsor and vote for the U.S. Term Limits Amendment of three House terms and two Senate terms. As of November 2025, 128 House members and 24 senators in the 119th Congress had signed.16U.S. Term Limits. 119th Congress Pledge Signers The organization also publishes a list of pledge-breakers, which currently includes Senators Tommy Tuberville, Susan Collins, and Markwayne Mullin, and Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Daniel Crenshaw, among others.17U.S. Term Limits. 119th Congress Pledge Signers
Neither a petition signature nor a candidate pledge changes any law. They function as pressure and as a public record. The mechanism the signatures ultimately feed into is still one of the two Article V routes above.
Objections a Signer Should Know About
Support for the concept is broad and bipartisan — 90% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats in the 2023 Pew survey — and advocates point to a 98% incumbent reelection rate as evidence that competitive elections alone won’t rotate Congress.1Pew Research Center. How Americans View Proposals to Change the Political System18U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Tomboulides Testimony The objections are worth understanding before signing, because two of them affect what the petition drive itself could produce.
The first is the “runaway convention” concern. Article V says nothing about limiting a convention’s scope, and the Constitution supplies no procedure for running one. Critics note that the 1787 Philadelphia Convention was originally convened to revise the Articles of Confederation and instead produced a new constitution with a new ratification method.19National Constitution Center. Report: Article V Constitutional Conventions Former Chief Justice Warren Burger called such a convention a “free-for-all for special interest groups” in 1988, and Justice Antonin Scalia said in 2014, “I certainly would not want a constitutional convention. Who knows what would come out of that?” Some scholars argue the “single-subject” application form is constitutionally sound; others say there is no enforceable way to hold a convention to one topic. The Supreme Court has never directly ruled on the question and treated related amendment disputes as nonjusticiable political questions in Coleman v. Miller (1939).20Common Cause Florida. Stopping a Dangerous Article V Convention States including Indiana and Florida have passed delegate-control laws to address this, though analysts question whether those state guardrails would bind a federal convention.
The second is the policy critique. Casey Burgat of George Washington University argues that term limits reduce voter choice by removing popular incumbents, create an institutional “brain drain” as experienced legislators are replaced by newcomers more reliant on lobbyists and agency staff, and can worsen the revolving door by producing a steady stream of outgoing lawmakers seeking lobbying jobs.21Brookings Institution. Five Reasons to Oppose Congressional Term Limits Research from the University of Chicago’s Center for Effective Government finds that term-limited legislators sponsor fewer bills, participate less in committees, and miss more floor votes as their exit approaches, and links state-level term limits to greater polarization.22University of Chicago Center for Effective Government. Term Limits Nick Tomboulides of U.S. Term Limits has countered that lawmakers already spend most of their time fundraising rather than mastering policy, and that lobbyists are among the strongest opponents of the movement — a fact he says undercuts the claim that limits would empower special interests.23NPR. Congressional Term Limits Explainer
Where Things Stand
The campaign is at its most organized in decades and still far from its goal. Both bills in the 119th Congress sit in committee with no scheduled vote and no clear path to a two-thirds supermajority. The convention drive has 13 single-subject state applications in hand and active resolutions in over a dozen more, but needs 21 additional states to reach the 34-state threshold that would compel Congress to call a convention. If a signer wants their signature to matter, the state legislature is where it currently has the most weight.