A group of North Carolina House Republicans, including Speaker of the House Tim Moore, called again this week for a constitutional convention to add congressional term limits to the U.S. Constitution.
The amending process would need support in 34 states, including North Carolina, to begin. Only five states have called for term limits, but another 14 have backed broader calls for constitutional conventions that potentially brings the number up to 19, according to U.S. Term Limits, a group backing the effort.
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North Carolina's General Assembly has debated various calls for constitutional conventions for years without ultimately backing the idea. Moore, R-Cleveland, and other Republicans got a congressional term limits resolution through the state House two years ago, but it died in the Senate without ever getting a hearing.
This year's effort is House Joint Resolution 151. It calls for a convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, which lays out the process for constitutional amendments. The resolution would only cover a convention on congressional term limits and says that it should not be included with convention applications "on any other subject" as convention supporters try to get the required two-thirds of U.S. states to back the call.
"The majority of Americans support the additional measure of accountability for their elected leaders in Washington," Moore said in a news release on the resolution Tuesday. "Term limits would benefit both Congress and the rest of the country by paving the way for more competitive elections."
The resolution calls for term limits for both the U.S. House and Senate, but it doesn't suggest the number of terms. That would be decided at convention, then three-fourths of states would have to sign off on the language to actually amend the U.S. Constitution.
General Assembly members aren't term limited, and Moore is in his 11th two-year term. He is the longest serving speaker of the house in North Carolina history.