Recent House bills of note:

H.B. 370: Salary of Secretary-Health and Human Services, Rep. Verla Insko

H.B. 388: Campaign Disclosure, Reps. Beverly Earle, Earline Parmon, Marvin Lucas and Becky Carney

H.B. 390: Poultry Worker Protection, Reps. Earle and Insko

H.B. 397: Conscience Protection/Contraceptive Coverage, Rep. Mark Hilton

H.B. 399: U.S. Senate Vacancies, Rep. John Blust

H.B. 409: Annual Archeology Reports, Rep. Ronnie Sutton

H.B. 413: Limit Legislators to Four Consecutive Terms, Rep. Johnathan Rhyne

A bill would limit legislators to four consecutive terms.

Rep. Johnathan Rhyne, a Lincoln County Republican, said he filed the bill to help bring fresh faces to the state legislature.

"When you have people holding office for excessively long periods of time, it stifles new ideas," he said. "If we have some rotation, we'll have fresh faces, fresh ideas and different perspectives."

Rhyne served four terms in the House during the late 1980s and early '90s before retiring. He was re-elected to a fifth term last fall.

He said that he was not concerned that reducing legislative terms might give more power to the staffers and lobbyists who don't leave town. Rather, he argued that long-term legislators tend to become more beholden to the permanent political class.

"The longer you're down here, the more aligned you tend to be with various interest groups," he said.  

Rhyne, a family law attorney, said that he would voluntarily leave office after serving three more terms in the legislature.