{ "id": "R40864", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R40864", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 596312, "date": "2019-04-15", "retrieved": "2019-04-16T14:39:10.794349", "title": "Presidential Terms and Tenure: Perspectives and Proposals for Change", "summary": "The President and Vice President\u2019s terms of office are prescribed by the Constitution and four of its amendments.\nArticle II, Section 1, of the Constitution, which came into effect with the convening of the First Congress and inauguration of the first President and Vice President in 1789, sets the terms of these two officers at four years, and does not prohibit their reelection. Four amendments to the Constitution, ratified between 1804 and 1967, have added further conditions to presidential terms and tenure.\nThe Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, extended the qualifications for Presidents to the vice presidency. \nSection 1 of the Twentieth Amendment, ratified in 1933, sets the expiration date for these terms at noon on January 20 of each year following a presidential election.\nThe Twenty-Second Amendment, ratified in 1951, limits presidential tenure: no person may be elected President more than twice. It also specifies that Vice Presidents who succeed to the office may be elected to two full terms if they served less than two years of the term of the President they succeeded. If they served more than two years of the predecessor\u2019s term, they are eligible for election to only one additional term. \nThe Twenty-Fifth Amendment, ratified in 1967, does not directly affect terms and tenure of the President and Vice President, but provides in Section 1 that the Vice President \u201cshall become President\u201d on the death, resignation, or removal from office of the President. This section clarifies original constitutional language on the status of a Vice President who succeeds to the presidency. Section 2 authorizes the President to make nominations to fill vacancies in the office of Vice President, subject to approval by a majority vote of both houses of Congress, a contingency not covered in the original language of the Constitution.\nThe length of the President\u2019s term and the question of whether Presidents should be eligible for reelection were extensively debated in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention. Late in the proceedings, the delegates settled on a four-year term for both President and Vice President but did not place a limit on the number of terms a President could serve. Following a precedent set by President George Washington (1789-1797), and reinforced by Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), however, U.S. Presidents adhered to a self-imposed limit of two terms, a precedent that was observed for over 140 years. Although several Presidents during this period who had served two terms considered running for a third, Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1945) was the first to seek and be elected to both a third term, in 1940, and a fourth, in 1944.\nFollowing ratification of the four amendments cited above, additional amendment proposals to change the conditions of presidential terms and tenure were regularly introduced during the second half of the 20th century, but much less frequently to date in the 21st. Two categories of amendment predominated during this period: one variant proposed repeal of the Twenty-Second Amendment, thus permitting Presidents to be elected an unlimited number of times. Another category of proposed amendment would have extended the presidential and vice-presidential terms to six years, often in combination with a requirement limiting Presidents to one term. \nNo measure to repeal the Twenty-Second Amendment or otherwise change the presidential term of office has been introduced to date in the 116th Congress. This report will be updated if events warrant.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R40864", "sha1": "6d47b4ef352b3256eb9adef9ed8773a96e62684d", "filename": "files/20190415_R40864_6d47b4ef352b3256eb9adef9ed8773a96e62684d.html", "images": {} }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R40864", "sha1": "ef5db83154edb87a2093f6b42d27d5f82eb1a511", "filename": "files/20190415_R40864_ef5db83154edb87a2093f6b42d27d5f82eb1a511.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 353117, "date": "2009-10-19", "retrieved": "2016-04-07T02:14:10.549356", "title": "Presidential Terms and Tenure: Perspectives and Proposals for Change", "summary": "The terms of the President and Vice President are set at four years by Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. The 20th Amendment, ratified in 1933, sets the expiration date of these terms at noon on January 20 of each year following a presidential election. \nFrom 1789 to 1940, chief executives adhered to a self-imposed limit of two terms, although only 7 of the 31 Presidents from 1789 through 1933 actually served two consecutive terms in office. The precedent was exceeded only once, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected to four terms, and served from 1933 through 1945. The 22nd Amendment, proposed and ratified following the Franklin Roosevelt presidency, provides that \u201cNo person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.\u201d It also specifies that Vice Presidents who succeed to the presidency may be elected to two full terms as President if they have served less than two years of their predecessor\u2019s term, for a theoretical total of 10 years\u2019 service as President. If, however, they have served more than two years of their predecessor\u2019s term, they can be elected to only one additional term, for a total of between four and eight years of service, depending on when the Vice President succeeded to the presidency. The debate continues as to whether the 22nd Amendment is an absolute limit on service as President. For instance, could a former President elected to two terms later be elected Vice President, and then succeed to the presidency on the departure of the incumbent chief executive? The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967, provided, among other things, for vacancies in the office of Vice President, empowering the President to make nominations to that office when it becomes unoccupied, subject to approval by a vote of both houses of Congress.\nAlthough the length of the presidential term was decided after spirited debate at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and the 22nd Amendment provides term limits for the President, proposed constitutional amendments that would alter these provisions are occasionally introduced in Congress. One proposal, which would lengthen the President and Vice President\u2019s terms to six years, was introduced frequently through the 103rd Congress. Some six-year term amendments proposed limiting the President to a single term, while others allowed for two terms, or no limit at all. Another category of amendment, which continues to be introduced in most Congresses, would repeal the 22nd Amendment. H.J.Res. 5, introduced in the 111th Congress by Representative Jos\u00e9 E. Serrano, falls into this category. H.J.Res. 5 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee, but no further action has been taken to date.\nThis report will be updated as events warrant.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R40864", "sha1": "a5a421b32728cffe82c4bf5cdf4fc4701fe337b0", "filename": "files/20091019_R40864_a5a421b32728cffe82c4bf5cdf4fc4701fe337b0.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R40864", "sha1": "62c1a77923ac77b73c66e24a3217c079cfe5e4d1", "filename": "files/20091019_R40864_62c1a77923ac77b73c66e24a3217c079cfe5e4d1.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "American Law", "Constitutional Questions" ] }