When the 119th Congress gavels in on Jan. 3, 2025, both the House and Senate will look very different. Forty-seven members of Congress and counting will not return for another term after the 2024 elections. That includes 39 representatives and eight senators who are either retiring, running for another office or resigning early.
Members have mixed feelings about the new faces that will inevitably enter the chamber.
“I think it’s good to have some new blood in here,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said.
“We’re losing a lot of corporate knowledge, and I’m worried about that,” Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., said.
Some who are leaving, like Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., are known to be moderate, likable, and able to work across the aisle.
Others, like Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., are highly respected and intelligent, so they have been given positions like Chairman of the Financial Services Committee.
Then there are lawmakers like Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who has been in the House of Representatives for more than 25 years, and is taking a lot of institutional knowledge with him when he retires.
Straight Arrow News asked Blumenauer how the loss of experienced members will impact Congress.
“Well, it will be replenished as new people come on board and get some experience and dive into these issues. It’ll take a while, but life goes on. We hope that people will be a little more inclined to work together cooperatively,” Blumenauer told Straight Arrow News.
Some of the best, brightest and most-liked from both sides of the aisle are leaving, which made another well-respected member, Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., think twice about staying.
“I was talking to both McCarthy and McHenry today. And I told them, I said, ‘With you all leaving, it’s really tempting to follow you.’ But at the same time, I think that the obligation to make sure that the House goes on the right track, to make sure that this country doesn’t go south, is really important. And that’s what’s keeping me here,” Graves said.
But not everyone will be sad to see long-time members go. There’s a bipartisan group that wants to implement term limits.
“Well, I don’t think anyone thinks the Congress is doing well. Having new folks here, maybe it’ll improve things. But I don’t understand the argument for all this experience when we can’t even get budgets passed,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Straight Arrow News.
Ro Khanna is calling for twelve-year term limits, while other members have called for six-year limits.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., supports a limit but doesn’t think it would work unless it applies to everyone.
“I never said I was going to term-limit myself unless it is for everyone. The alternative is you’re just going to have people in Nebraska with no seniority. But I do think in principle, for across the board, it should be the policy for term limits, and I would support that,” Bacon said.
The reality is that members have been introducing term limit bills for years. But like many elected officials, those bills haven’t gone anywhere.
