Is there a process for recalling U.S. senators? | Fact brief

There is no legal process that allows voters to recall a sitting member of Congress.

The Congressional Research Service notes that members of the U.S. Senate and House serve fixed terms and cannot be removed by voters through recall elections. However, each chamber may expel its own members via a two-thirds vote.

New Jersey voters approved a recall provision in 1993, but courts later blocked its use against members of Congress. In Committee to Recall Robert Menendez v. Wells (2010), judges ruled states cannot recall federal lawmakers.

In 2017, Maine lawmakers proposed a similar law, but the Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs voted that it ought not to pass, and the proposal died without a floor vote.

The U.S. Senate has expelled 15 members in its history, most during the Civil War for disloyalty to the Union. One senator was expelled in 1797 “for other disloyal conduct,” according to the Congressional Research Service.