{ "archive_path": "archive/1789761615.164121", "base_url": "www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs", "basename": "house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs", "bookmarked_date": "2026-09-18 20:00", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.washingtonsun.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs.html" }, "domain": "www.washingtonsun.com", "extension": "", "hash": "T40VQN8DQ0KADQ0JDJ8K", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.washingtonsun.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:04.717924+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789761615.164121", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:04.047285+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:06.160740+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789761615.164121", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:04.727530+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:20.783453+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789761615.164121", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:15.875896+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpoylvch_9", "https://www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:15.860885+00:00", "index_texts": [ "Insurgent House Democrats are opening a new front in the generational war roiling the party, pushing to put term limits on committee leadership roles.When the lawmakers return to Washington after the midterms, some Democrats plan to bring up a proposal in their caucus organizational meetings that would limit how many years leaders remain in top committee stops, according to multiple House Democrats familiar with the plans.\n \n \n\n \n\u201cIt will only happen if members approve it. It\u2019s an uphill battle, but I think the tide is turning,\u201d said one of the House Democrats who was granted anonymity to address internal deliberations. \u201cWe are working on it. It\u2019s a very touchy topic.\u201dA second House Democrat said that next Congress, \u201cthere\u2019ll be many more members that are five terms or less\u201d and there is an \u201cappetite\u201d to add limits so that younger and newer members can move up.\n \n \n\n\n\nThe new discussion around term limits comes at a time when the Democratic base is calling for new faces in the party and multiple incumbents have lost primaries to younger, more progressive candidates. Already, Democrats are starting to mount challenges for top committee slots: Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut announced she\u2019d challenge Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia for the top job on the House Education and Workforce Committee. Scott ascended to that position in 2015.Unlike Democrats, Republicans impose a strict six-year limit on lawmakers serving as chairs or as ranking members when their party is in the minority. The first House Democrat said the limits could be similar to Republicans\u2019 but without counting the years as ranking members, though the details on the restrictions are still being worked through. The lawmaker also said that an additional proposal is to allow committee leaders who have reached their limit to request a waiver.Rep. Mike Levin of California, the chair of the House Democratic Committee on Caucus Rules, said the panel has held multiple listening sessions where the seniority issue came up.\u201cThere are a number of members that obviously have great interest in this. There\u2019s been discussion of grandfathering in everybody who\u2019s already in a ranking member or chair position,\u201d Levin said. \u201cThere\u2019s others that disagree with that, so there\u2019s been no consensus on that, nor has there been any finalized proposal or anything like that. We\u2019re still working on it.\u201d\n \n \n\n \nLevin said that the committee would work with members who are interested in the rule change to \u201cformulate specific proposals that will be voted on.\u201d Once there is a proposal, it will be voted on by the entire caucus rules committee, and then brought to the full House Democratic caucus for a vote in November.\u201cMy hope is that we can build some internal consensus on what would be fair, or I should say, not just what would be fair, but what would actually earn the support of our members,\u201d Levin added.The issue is especially touchy for Congressional Black Caucus members who have historically supported seniority rules. Those rules have helped secure top slots for Black members who were long denied power in Congress. And the proposal comes as fewer Black lawmakers are expected in the next Congress because of Republicans\u2019 redistricting efforts, potentially reducing the caucus\u2019 influence.Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey told The Washington Sun that a proposal for term limits is a \u201cmixed bag,\u201d pointing at the House GOP\u2019s practices.\u201cWatching what the Republicans are doing, they\u2019re just playing musical chairs sometimes with these committee chairmanships to sort of circumvent what the goal is,\u201d Ivey said. \u201cOn the Democratic side, we\u2019ve had very young members \u2014 Robert Garcia for example \u2014 rise to the top.\u201dThree Democrats pointed to Rep. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey), who has been the top Democrat in the House Energy and Commerce Committee since 2015, as one of the biggest opponents to term limits.\n \n \n\n \n\u201cOver the years, he\u2019s been very adamant that he is against it. Very, very adamant, and talks to all the members saying, \u2018Don\u2019t be for it,\u2019\u201d a third House Democrat told The Sun. \u201cHe feels like he\u2019s waited a long time to get there and he doesn\u2019t want it to change.\u201dIn a statement to The Sun, Pallone said, \u201cour current system is democracy \u2014 every two years, members have the freedom to run and vote for the best person to lead committees based on merit. Open campaigns lead to healthy debate, diverse leaders, and a stronger caucus.\u201dOther senior Democrats are also likely to challenge the term limits efforts in November.Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a popular House Democrat who has been the top Democrat of two powerful committees \u2014 first the Oversight Committee and now Judiciary \u2014 called himself \u201ca pretty good example of why we don\u2019t need term limits, because we do have real and open elections on the Democratic side.\u201d\u201cThere are people who may want to run for a chairmanship who feel like there\u2019s too much of a presumption of seniority, and it\u2019s only a presumption, it\u2019s a rebuttable presumption,\u201d Raskin added. \u201cI can see where it\u2019s coming from, but we\u2019ve also seen a lot of turnover and fluidity in the ranking positions and the chair positions.\u201dYet, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, who has been the top Democrat in the House Homeland Security Committee since its inception in 2005, told The Sun, \u201cI got to be chair based on my seniority on the committee.\u201d\n \n \n\n \n\u201cIf you ask Bennie Thompson, I support seniority and the current rule. But I will say if you want to debate it and put it to a vote, officer. Fine. That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ll change my vote,\u201d Thompson added.Some of the lawmakers in line to become chairs if Democrats win the majority in November, such as Garcia, a younger member from California, are not opposed to limits.\u201cI\u2019ve told folks already in the caucus that I could support that,\u201d said Garcia, who is in line to chair the House Oversight Committee. \u201cI\u2019ve told folks already in the caucus that I could support that.\u201d\u201cAs a new person, I think that having new leaders and there being a debate on that is healthy,\u201d Garcia added.Previous attempts by Democrats to place term limits on committee chairs have failed. Illinois Rep. Bill Foster led an effort in 2022 to set a six-year limit for committee leaders, counting time served as chair and ranking member together. House Democrats rejected the proposal in a 138-63 vote.The fact that the proposal got support from around a third of the caucus signaled that such an effort would \u201ceventually\u201d succeed, the third anonymous House Democrat told The Sun.\n \n \n\n \n\u201cA lot of the younger members don\u2019t want to be in Congress for 30 years before they get a chance to chair a major committee. My guess is that if it doesn\u2019t change this time, it\u2019s definitely changing the next time,\u201d the lawmaker said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of time. People are watching their Republican classmates come in and have opportunity to chair major committees and leave instead of having to be here for a long time.\u201dRep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee,opposes committee leadership term limits and told The Sun that House Democrats have \u201ccreated many opportunities\u201d for younger members to move up.Under the current House Democratic caucus rules, each committee must have a vice chair or vice ranking member position that goes to a member who has served in the committee for five terms or less and is considered \u201can opportunity for a junior Member to gain insight and experience into the workings of the committee.\u201d\u201cContrary to some belief, it does take a little bit of time to understand how this place functions,\u201d Meeks said. \u201cI sat and I watched and I learned for a long period of time.\u201dBut not all Democrats want to wait long to rise through the ranks.\u201cA lot of us don\u2019t want to stay here forever,\u201d the third House Democrat said." ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789761615.164121", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:12.704767+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:12.696861+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "Inside House Democrats' Push to Kick Old People Out of Leadership - The Washington Sun", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789761615.164121", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:12.631969+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "--timestamping", "https://www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:12.621266+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789761615.164121", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T04:17:06.170188+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "Inside House Democrats' Push to Kick Old People Out of Leadership - The Washington Sun", "warc": null, "wget": "www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1789761615.164121", "newest_archive_date": "2026-09-19T04:17:15.875896+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-09-19T04:17:04.047285+00:00", "path": "/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "282783a9-c061-49ac-97c5-83f77482a91d", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1789761615-import.txt" ], "tags": ",war-wiki,drudge,pool", "tags_str": "war-wiki,drudge,pool", "timestamp": "1789761615.164121", "title": "Inside House Democrats' Push to Kick Old People Out of Leadership - The Washington Sun", "updated": "2026-09-19T04:17:04.046897+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-09-19 04:17", "url": "https://www.washingtonsun.com/us-news/house-democrats-push-term-limits-committee-chairs" }