Senate Republicans are divided over whether or not to impose term limits on the leadership post currently held by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., after he steps down.
According to the Washington Examiner, every Senate Republican leadership post except for the top role is currently term-limited. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, one of the two GOP senators running to replace McConnell, earlier this week proposed that the GOP conference rules be changed to include a term limit for the leadership post.
However, McConnell dismissed this push as "totally inappropriate."
"Well, we have term limits now. They’re called elections, and I had a contest myself during my last election as leader," McConnell said. "I think the conference ought to be able to be free to choose whoever."
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., Cornyn's rival for the post, has said that while he's not "averse" to talking about term limits, he thinks its premature to have the discussion now when the next leadership election is more than half a year away.
"I want to hear from those who are running for leader what changes, if any, they’d like to see made to the conference rules," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a member of the Senate GOP 'Breakfast Club,' told the Examiner. "It's just one of many issues that I think are gonna come up."
Senate GOP Conference Chair John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who's running for Senate Republican Whip, said that a conference meeting set for March 20 will help settle this debate.
"Well, people are gonna have to decide what they want to propose, and it'll be debated, and every time we have a conference, there’s opportunities to discuss those sorts of things," he said. "We don’t change the rules all that often."