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Happy Monday morning. The afternoon and evening editions are taking a hiatus for this week. We’ll be out every morning, and we’re back with three editions per day on Monday, April 25.

We have some news for you this morning. If House Republicans take the majority, they are considering imposing term limits for committee chairs and ranking members as part of the chamber’s rules package for the 118th Congress.

Republicans limit their own members to three consecutive terms atop any committee. Democrats, however, don’t have any term limits. Such a move by Republicans if they take the majority would drastically alter the makeup of the House.

For example, under this plan in a GOP majority, the following Democrats would be barred from serving as ranking member:

Reps. Jerry Nadler of New York and Richie Neal of Massachusetts are currently in their third terms as the top Democrats on their respective panels. Under this new GOP proposal, they wouldn’t be eligible for a fourth. Several other Democrats who would be impacted by this rule are retiring, such as Reps. Peter DeFazio (Ore.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (Texas).

This potential move by Republicans would have a seismic impact on the House and would be a huge breach of tradition. For decades, the two parties have set their own internal rules to decide who sits on committees and for how long. Republicans have had term limits in place since 1994, Democrats currently don’t have any such regulations.

Yet Democrats altered this dynamic by kicking Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) off her committees in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection over her violent comments aimed at Democrats. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was censured and removed from his committee assignments after posting an animated video where his character killed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and threatened President Joe Biden.

Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have warned that Democrats would pay for such moves if the GOP took over, with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and others booted from their current panels.

Any GOP term limits plan would also be a huge blow to the seniority system, a bedrock of internal House politics.

The seniority system in the House and the question of term limits has always been a point of controversy for senior Democrats, especially for the Congressional Black Caucus and other minority caucuses. The seniority system is seen as an especially powerful tool for minority lawmakers, giving them access to committee gavels or ranking members posts. Nine current Democratic committee chairs are minority lawmakers, a sign of how important seniority is to Democrats.

Democrats had term limits in place when they took over the House following the 2006 elections, but then eliminated them. Democrats debated instituting term limits for all of their leaders and committee chairs in 2018, although it didn’t happen.

Ultimately Speaker Nancy Pelosi cut a deal to limit her speakership to four more years, with this being the last term. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn pushed back hard on any effort to put a cap on their leadership careers.

“She’s not negotiating for me,” Hoyer said at the time. “Is anybody confused? I am not for term limits. I … am … not … for … term … limits.”

But there’s already been grumblings within the caucus that if Republicans were to win back the House, the Democrats atop certain committees would need to be replaced if the party is going to effectively defend the Biden administration against GOP attacks.

One Democrat told us Republicans would be doing Democrats a favor if they injected some fresh blood into their upper ranks.