JEFFERSON CITY — A ballot question that would ask voters to loosen constitutional term limits approved over 30 years ago is advancing once again in the Missouri Legislature.

The House Elections Committee voted Tuesday to approve Carrollton Republican state Rep. Peggy McGaugh’s proposed constitutional amendment that would alter the limits.

The original term-limit constitutional amendment, which three-fourths of voters statewide approved in 1992, limits state legislators to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate, or 16 years of total service.

The resolution the House Elections Committee approved Tuesday would still limit lawmakers to 16 years in the Legislature.

But beginning Dec. 5, 2030, the amendment would remove the eight-year limits for serving in one chamber, allowing someone to theoretically serve all 16 years in one chamber.

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Legislative service due to an election before Dec. 5, 2030 would be counted against a legislator’s remaining time in office.

The House overwhelmingly approved the proposed term-limits change in late April last year. It eventually died in the Senate at the end of the legislative session.

After Tuesday’s vote in the House committee, this year’s effort still needs affirmative votes before the full House as well as Senate approval before voters get the final say.

Critics of Missouri’s current term limits law argue it is too strict, forcing lawmakers out of a job once they begin to gain expertise and handing influence over to unelected lobbyists.

Many House legislators who face term limits eventually run for the Senate, where there are fewer available seats.

During debate last year, Rep. Eric Woods, D-Kansas City, said individuals close to the process have seen how term limits “can be harmful to the institution” and can give “some undue and unbalanced influence to special interests.”

But public polling has shown overwhelming support for term limits. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2023 found nearly 9 in 10 U.S. adults supported term limits for members of Congress.

“People believe in term limits because they have concerns about corruption and entrenchment and bad actors in the Legislature,” Woods said last year.

In addition to the term-limits legislation, the House Elections Committee on Tuesday also voted to reinstate Missouri’s state-run presidential preference primary, which lawmakers zapped in 2022 ahead of the 2024 party contests.

House Bill 367 , by state Rep. Brad Banderman, R-St. Clair, would schedule the primaries for the first Tuesday in March of presidential election years.

McGaugh’s legislation is House Joint Resolution 67 .