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When Pennsylvania lawmakers return to Harrisburg in 2027, congressional term limits should be near the top of their agenda.
Pennsylvania should pass a resolution applying for an amendment convention limited to proposing term limits on members of Congress.
Why? Because Washington is not going to reform itself.
This is hardly a partisan issue. A statewide survey found 79% of Pennsylvania voters support congressional term limits, including 78% of Republicans and 79% of Democrats. Seventy-four percent want their state legislators to support an Article V application for congressional term limits.
Yet Harrisburg has failed to act. In 2025, a bipartisan group of House members sponsored House Resolution 111. It went to committee and no further.
The case for term limits is straightforward. The longer politicians remain in Washington, the more advantages they accumulate -- fundraising networks, staff, name recognition, seniority and relationships with powerful interests. Public service becomes a career.
Term limits would change those incentives. Members would arrive knowing their time in Washington is temporary, with more reason to accomplish something and less reason to build a decades-long political career.
The obstacle, of course, is Congress. Why would members voluntarily surrender their own power and job security?
That is where the states come in.
Under Article V, two-thirds of the states -- 34 today -- can apply for a convention to propose amendments. But the real power of the strategy may be the pressure it creates before a convention ever occurs.
As the number of state applications approaches 34, Congress faces a choice: allow the states to trigger the convention process or propose a term-limits amendment itself. State application campaigns have historically helped prod Congress toward action, including during the movement that preceded the 22nd Amendment limiting presidents to two terms.
Pennsylvania should help create that leverage.
The Constitution was written here because America's leaders recognized that the existing system was not working and fundamental reform was necessary.
Nearly 240 years later, Pennsylvania can again help force Washington to confront a structural problem it refuses to solve itself.
Pass the congressional term-limits resolution. Move America one state closer to the constitutional threshold.
Pennsylvania helped write the Constitution.
Now it's time for Pennsylvania to use it.
Andy Dinniman and John Eichelberger are Pennsylvania state co-chairs for U.S. Term limits and former Pennsylvania state senators.