A powerful state senator is backing a move to extend term limits for Florida legislators. It’s a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow state lawmakers to serve 12 consecutive years in office, extending the current eight-year limits.

Senator Denise Grimsley, who chairs the Senate panel that writes the health and human services budget, filed the measure last week.

Currently, the Senate has four-year terms, and the House has two-year terms. But Grimsley says it takes more experience to master the legislative process."It was such a steep learning curve. And what happens is that the legislator, who is elected, goes up against the staff or a lobbyist who has a lot of historical, institutional knowledge."

Florida voters approved eight-year term limits in 1992. Grimsley’s measure would create six-year terms for senators and four-year terms for House members. Past proposals to change the term limits have died in the Legislature.