In a political era defined by division, Americans have found something they can almost universally agree on. A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds that 83% of adults nationwide support term limits for members of Congress — one of the most broadly popular positions in all of American politics, and a rare point of genuine consensus in a deeply polarized country.
The survey, which polled 1,322 adults between April 27 and April 30, 2026, carries a margin of error of about 3.1 percentage points. Its headline finding is not that a particular bill is moving through Washington, but that the public’s appetite for limiting congressional tenure is overwhelming — and that it cuts across party lines in a way almost no other issue does right now.
A Rare Bipartisan Consensus
Break the numbers down by party and the agreement holds up. According to the poll, 89% of Republicans, 84% of independents, and 78% of Democrats all said they support capping how long lawmakers can serve. It is unusual to find any policy question where the gap between the two major parties is measured in single digits, let alone one where a supermajority of every group lands on the same side.
The sentiment is not new, either. A separate Pew Research Center survey conducted in September 2023 found support for congressional term limits even higher, at 87%. Taken together, the two polls point to a durable, years-long consensus: whatever their disagreements about who should hold power, Americans across the spectrum increasingly agree that no one should hold it forever.
Why the Idea Resonates
The appeal is easy to understand. Voters look at a Congress where many members have held their seats for decades, where seniority often determines influence, and where incumbents win re-election at overwhelming rates, and they increasingly ask a simple question: is anyone ever going to leave? Term limits promise a straightforward answer — a built-in expiration date that would force regular turnover and, supporters argue, reduce the grip of entrenched power and lobbying relationships that build up over long careers.
Critics of term limits raise real counterpoints. They argue that experienced legislators are better at navigating complex policy and standing up to well-funded interest groups, and that forcing seasoned lawmakers out could hand even more influence to unelected staff and lobbyists who never face voters. But those arguments have not dented the public’s enthusiasm, which has stayed remarkably high across multiple surveys and multiple years.
The Catch: Congress Would Have to Limit Itself
Here is where public opinion collides with political reality. Imposing term limits on Congress would almost certainly require a constitutional amendment. In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton that states cannot unilaterally impose term limits on their federal representatives — meaning the only durable path runs through the amendment process laid out in the Constitution.
That process is steep by design. An amendment generally requires approval by two-thirds of both the House and the Senate, followed by ratification from three-quarters of the states. In practice, that means the very lawmakers voters want to limit would have to vote to limit themselves — the political equivalent of asking someone to write their own pink slip. Historically, that vote does not happen.
A Measure of the Gap Between Public and Power
It is worth being precise about what this poll is and is not. The 83% figure is not a law, a pending bill, or a scheduled vote. It is a snapshot of public opinion — a measure of how broadly Americans want change, not evidence that change is coming. No term-limits amendment is close to clearing Congress, and none appears likely to in the near future.
What the survey captures, instead, is a striking tension at the heart of American democracy: an overwhelming, bipartisan public demand on one side, and an institution with every incentive to look the other way on the other. The gap between what voters say they want and what Washington is willing to do is rarely this wide, or this clearly measured. Whether that gap ever closes may depend less on public opinion — which appears settled — and more on whether the people it targets ever decide to act against their own interest.