Trump pushes term limits for Congress

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Donald Trump told his supporters during rallies in Colorado that he wants congressional term limits.

If elected president, the Republican nominee said Tuesday he will seek a constitutional amendment for the change.

"The time for congressional term limits has finally arrived," Trump said at a rally in Colorado Springs. "Not only will it end our government corruption, but we will end the economic stagnation that we are in right now."

At a later rally in Grand Junction, Trump said he would limit members of the House of Representatives to three terms, or six years, and members of the Senate to two terms, or 12 years.

"The decades of failure in Washington and decades of special interest dealing must and will come to an end," Trump said in Colorado Springs.

Trump noted new members of Congress will make it "so that we can have a government that works again and can function properly."

Last September, Trump didn't address the topic when asked on CBS' Face the Nation what he would do in terms of government form. "The biggest reform is to get competent people in office."

One of his top advisers, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, is running for a fourth term in the Senate.

In a Gallup poll conducted in 2013, 75 percent of Americans said they would vote in favor of term limits compared with 21 percent against. Among Republicans, it was 82 percent in favor vs. 15 percent against.

In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled that congressional term limits can only be achieved by constitutional amendment.

A constitutional amendment first needs a two-thirds majority vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate, then three-fourths of the states legislatures must ratify it.

The last constitutional amendment -- there are 27 in all -- enacted in 1992, delayed changes in congressional salaries from taking effect until after the next election.

Trump made campaign stops in Colorado before heading to Las Vegas one day before the presidential debate.

Also Tuesday, Trump released a five-point plan for government ethics reform to "drain the swamp in Washington." He used that phrase in his campaign stops.

Trump briefly was statistically tied with Hillary Clinton in Colorado polls but now he is trailing by 4.6 points there in the UPI/CVoter state polls released Monday.