Good after noon everybody welcome here to our our newest talk at Freedom Works. My name is Sarah Anderson or Federal Affairs manager and joining me today to talk a little bit about term limits and what's going on here in the swamp is representative Matt Gates from Florida's First Congressional District Matt. Thanks for being here Thanks for joining me up in the attic of that's what happens when you don't have a lot of seniority to the basement or the attic I chose the attic solution Yes definitely got a nice view out the window that we're facing and see if we have term limits then everybody will be able to get good offices because you don't have that here for 1020 Cars parked out exactly in space exactly this career politicians on so before we jump into the issue of term limits share a little bit about your background how you ended up in politics and what you're really doing here in Washington to fight the way that things are going here most of the time. Well, I'm a country lawyer from North Florida I served in our state Legislature for six years I love that service. It was dynamic and interesting and at times bipartisan and we got a ton done and it was terrible preparation for service in the Congress where so often we fall short the expectations that the country rightfully has for us and so I ran for Congress in 2016 and was elected in a pretty crowded primary and then in a general election I represent the district that's got the highest concentration of active duty military in the country and so well I did not serve in the military I have a reverence for military families that that really informs the work I do in the Congress and really I'm just trying to change this place. You know I didn't run as a guy who thought everything was working well and I wanted to be a part of it The pitch I'm into my voters is that Washington socks and it's broken and it's sort of broken on purpose right like the special interests win when we don't get enough done for the country and so I think that there are number of structural changes that we can make that will vastly improve our decision making and if we do that we'll get better outcomes right? So you mentioned that you serve some time in the Florida House of Representatives do you guys have term limits down there and how is the Legislature in your state different than what you watch it happen in Washington every day so in Florida Our voters took the position that eight is enough so eight years in the state House state Senate and you gotta move on to other work and that led to a vibrant that is so lap lacking here in Washington DC that's cuz you have a shot clock. You know that you only have a certain amount of time to get done this stuff you wanna get done So you're more willing to maybe take half a loaf, make some progress chip away at a major challenge and there's also more of a churn New ideas younger members and you don't have time to hold these grudges. You know one thing I notice around here. Some of these old battle boxes have been hating each other for the last two decades and then we try to get them to agree on what to rename a post office They'll end up chewing on each other over the course of you know term limit environment It's easier to dispense with whatever you know personal irritant you have with someone yeah and to get to the business while working for for the people that were supposed to serve. So I far prefer that term limit system in Florida What we have here I mean I think so often you're exactly right. We get to this point where members have been here so long that they campaign on the same things year after year but they never get them done when you're terminated, you have a limited period of time to make that stuff happen and if you wanna get reelected for the limited time you're allowed to be in office, you're gonna have to make some ground and the way to trace that is like you look at this industry that's right there come pitch in whatever their wares are and if you compare like the sheets of what they're asking for you over here it's the same stuff right? Because so little happens in there Dynamic where the only time we're able to do anything is if we are up against a crisis and that dynamic was never more on display than sort of this recent interchange between John Stewart and Mitch Mcconnell Cuz Stewart says I think rather reasonably why wouldn't we go ahead and plan in advance for the victim compensation fund for people that are gonna be alive and Mitch Mcconnell essentially says We always take care of this at the very end when it's in crisis boats and no one should worry It was just such a Washington answer Right? Will you get back to those things where we're looking at facing a government shutdown or whatever the crisis is Upcoming leadership tends to bring something up and make you guys vote on it which means the only time we can actually do something is if when we don't the government will shut down and everyone will hate us right? That is the motivation we need to govern here and it's sickening to me right? Well when you look at that compared to the way, maybe a family runs their business, you always have to be planning ahead so when you look at the state of Florida obviously the bill that would implement term limits a constitutional amendment is led by Representative Francis Rooney, also from Florida and the lead sponsor in Congress was then representative Ron Desantis who is now the governor of Florida Yes what is it about Florida? Obviously you're now a Co sponsor of this bill H 20 What is it about Florida that that's pushing your members to lead on it We've seen the positive impact of term limits in our state we have a government that's got you know, right wing left wing coastal inland rural urban and we seem to make it work and I think one of the essential ingredients to Success is the term limits environment that we've imposed our state capital Tallahassee was a lot worse of a place for ethics and good government before term limits. Now it's a lot better and so I don't think it's just the sunshine and excessive encounter with alligators that limits I think it's the fact that we've seen the positive impact term limits can have on government decision making So why do you see that? This is kind of become a part as an issue. There really aren't Democrats speaking out about this and not as many Republicans as we would hope what do we have to do to build a consensus of the businesses they run by the local Causes that they champion are involved in by their service to the country in some other way not just the time of service The other problem you have in a non term limits environment is that like people like Ron Desantis leaf people like Francis, Rooney isn't going to be here for 10 years so I'm probably not going to be either