Hoyer bucks Pelosi over term limits: ‘She’s not negotiating for me’
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday hammered the idea of adopting term-limits for chairmanships and leadership posts, distancing himself from Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is considering such caps as she scrambles to secure support to become Speaker next year.
“She’s not negotiating for me,” Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democratic leader, said tersely during a press briefing in the Capitol.
The comments underscore the divisions emerging between the top Democratic leaders — as well as other factions of the caucus — as Pelosi seeks to win over the support of some of her detractors.
The remarks also highlight the fact that, while Pelosi is negotiating rules changes with her critics, it will be up to the entire Democratic caucus to adopt them.{mosads}
In recent days, Pelosi has been in talks with members of an insurgent group of lawmakers, including notably Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), about ensuring a transition to a younger generation of Democratic leaders.
Pelosi, Hoyer and Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) have been in the top three House Democratic spots for more than a decade and are aiming to continue in top leadership positions when the party takes control of the lower chamber next month.
Those talks have recently centered on the adoption of term limits for both committee heads and leadership posts — changes to which Pelosi says she is “sympathetic.”
Yet a number of powerful Democratic voices have long-opposed those changes — a divide that revealed itself in animated fashion during a closed-door meeting of the Democratic Caucus in the Capitol basement on Tuesday morning.
Perlmutter made the case for term limits when addressing his colleagues, according to a number of lawmakers in the room. But he faced a long list of lawmakers who stood up for the preservation of the current, limitless system.
Opposition to term limits is particularly pronounced among leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), whose members are poised to lead a handful of powerful committees next year. Increasingly, CBC leaders think there’s a racial element behind the effort to limit chairmanships.
“Generally for African Americans, the frustrating thing is every time we get to the point where we’re making significant progress, the rules change,” Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), the outgoing CBC chairman, told The Hill on Monday night.
Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the incoming CBC chairwoman, is also opposed to the limits, saying it will only divide Democrats when they should be uniting behind a legislative agenda heading into their new majority.
“I don’t believe that it’s true that [Pelosi] needs to have term limits in order to get the votes that she needs to be Speaker,” Bass, a Pelosi supporter, said after Tuesday’s caucus meeting.
Clyburn also said he’s opposed to new term limits.
And Hoyer argued fervently that Democrats risk undermining the effectiveness of Congress — and the workings of democracy — if they sacrifice experience and seniority for the sake of empowering newer members. He noted that he has sponsored legislation eliminating term limits even for U.S. presidents.
“The term limit argument is an argument that, in my opinion, has been invalid,” Hoyer said.
Although there was no real resolution to the term-limit debate in Tuesday’s caucus meeting, both sides have agreed to strip any term-limit language from a House rules package — which must be adopted by Jan. 3 — and continue the debate at a later unspecified time.
“It’s being postponed,” Hoyer said. “I don’t think it was to a date certain.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who will lead the Rules Committee next year, said there’s no way such a discussion could happen before the Speaker vote in January “because there won’t be members here.”
That decision to push the debate beyond Jan. 3 would effectively divorce the term-limit discussion from the fight over Pelosi’s future at the top of the party.
Pelosi can lose 17 Democrats in the Speaker vote and still secure the gavel, but there are roughly 20 detractors — including a handful of incoming freshmen — who are vowing to oppose her.
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who will lead the Democrats’ messaging arm next year, said there’s “tremendous interest” within the caucus for empowering newer members, but noted there are other tools at Pelosi’s disposal to do so as she seeks to win over her opponents.
“There are a lot of ways to do that,” Cicilline said. “We all have to be looking for ways to maximize the incredible talent in this caucus and give people opportunities to take on important issues.”
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