Size of the United States House of Representatives
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This SourceThe size of the United States House of Representatives refers to total number of congressional districts (or seats) into which the land area of the United States proper has been divided. The number of seats is currently set at 435 voting representatives and 5 non-voting delegates for a total of 440 seats.
A contentious issue since the founding
The ideal number of members has been a contentious issue since the country's founding. George Washington objected to the original number of Representatives proposed at the Constitutional Convention as being too small. In Federalist 55, James Madison argued that setting the initial number of Representatives at 65 was not a threat to liberty, stating, "I am unable to conceive that the people of America, in their present temper, or under any circumstances which can speedily happen, will choose, and every second year repeat the choice of, sixty-five or a hundred men who would be disposed to form and pursue a scheme of tyranny or treachery. Madison went on to argue that other constitutional safeguards, such as division of powers among the three branches of government and between the two houses of Congress, as well as the _Compensation.2C_privilege.2C_restriction_on_holding_civil_office provision banning Representatives from holding civil office, would be enough to prevent perfidy. Madison advocated keeping the number of Representatives within certain bounds:- Nothing can be more fallacious than to found our political calculations on arithmetical principles. Sixty or seventy men may be more properly trusted with a given degree of power than six or seven. But it does not follow that six or seven hundred would be proportionably a better depositary. And if we carry on the supposition to six or seven thousand, the whole reasoning ought to be reversed. The truth is, that in all cases a certain number at least seems to be necessary to secure the benefits of free consultation and discussion, and to guard against too easy a combination for improper purposes; as, on the other hand, the number ought at most to be kept within a certain limit, in order to avoid the confusion and intemperance of a multitude. In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.
Since each state is guaranteed one Representative under _Apportionment, the minimum size of the House would be 50 Representatives. This would convert it into a non-proportional, U.S. Senate-like body. At the other extreme, because the number of Representatives cannot exceed one for every thirty thousand, the maximum number of Representatives at this time would be approximately 10,100.
History
The original size and apportionment of the House was set by Article One, Section 2.2C Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution.
The last time the number of seats was increased, to 435, was in 1910.
The number was later fixed at 435 by the Reapportionment Act of 1929 and the Apportionment Act of 1941.
For a brief period from 1959 to 1962, the admission of the states of Hawaii and Alaska to the United States required the temporary addition of two additional representatives for a new total of 437 voting seats. The number of seats reverted to 435 following reapportionment after the 1960 census.
Delegates
There are an additional four delegates to the House of Representatives. They represent the District of Columbia and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico also elects a resident commissioner every four years. The Northern Mariana Islands does not currently elect any sort of representative to Congress, although legislation was introduced by former Rep. Richard Pombo of California that would have allowed the commonwealth to do so.
Controversy
During the period that the current U.S. Constitution has been in effect, the number of citizens per congressional district has risen from an average of 30,000 in 1789 to nearly 700,000 as of 2008. It has been suggested that a new reapportionment act is needed to significantly raise the number of representatives toward the end of creating more equitable districts.
Past increases
The size of the House has increased as follows:1789-1800
| Date | Size | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| March 4, 1789 | 59 | Seats provided for in the Constitution. |
| November 21, 1789 | 64 | North Carolina ratifies. Seats provided for in the Constitution. |
| May 29, 1790 | 65 | Rhode Island ratifies. Seat provided for in the Constitution. |
| March 4, 1791 | 67 | Vermont admitted. |
| June 1, 1792 | 69 | Kentucky admitted. |
| March 4, 1793 | 105 | Apportionment of the First Census. |
| June 1, 1796 | 106 | Tennessee admitted. |
1801-1820
| Date | Size | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| March 1, 1803 | 107 | Ohio admitted. |
| March 4, 1803 | 142 | Apportionment of the Second Census. |
| April 30, 1812 | 143 | Louisiana admitted. |
| March 4, 1813 | 182 | Apportionment of the Third Census. |
| December 11, 1816 | 183 | Indiana admitted. |
| December 10, 1817 | 184 | Mississippi admitted. |
| December 3, 1818 | 185 | Illinois admitted. |
| December 14, 1819 | 186 | Alabama admitted. |
| March 15, 1820 | 186 | Maine admitted, given seven seats. Massachusetts delegation reduced correspondingly. |
1821-1840
| Date | Size | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| August 10, 1821 | 187 | Missouri admitted. |
| March 4, 1823 | 213 | Apportionment of the Fourth Census. |
| March 4, 1833 | 240 | Apportionment of the Fifth Census. |
| June 15, 1836 | 241 | Arkansas admitted. |
| January 26, 1837 | 242 | Michigan admitted. |
1841-1860
| Date | Size | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| March 4, 1843 | 223 | Apportionment of the Sixth Census. |
| March 3, 1845 | 224 | Florida admitted. |
| December 29, 1845 | 226 | Texas annexed and admitted. |
| December 28, 1846 | 228 | Iowa admitted. |
| May 29, 1848 | 230 | Wisconsin admitted. |
| March 4, 1849 | 231 | Wisconsin given another seat. |
| September 9, 1850 | 233 | California admitted. |
| March 4, 1853 | 234 | Apportionment of the Seventh Census. |
| May 11, 1858 | 236 | Minnesota admitted. |
| February 14, 1859 | 237 | Oregon admitted. |
1861-1880
| Date | Size | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| January 29, 1861 | 238 | Kansas admitted. |
| June 2, 1862 | 239 | California awarded an extra seat. |
| March 4, 1863 | 238 | Apportionment of the Eighth Census. |
| June 20, 1863 | 241 | West Virginia admitted. Virginia delegation not reduced due to Civil War absence. |
| October 31, 1864 | 242 | Nevada admitted. |
| March 1, 1867 | 243 | Nebraska admitted. |
| March 4, 1873 | 292 | Apportionment of the Ninth Census. |
| August 1, 1876 | 293 | Colorado admitted. |
1881-1900
| Date | Size | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| March 4, 1883 | 325 | Apportionment of the Tenth Census. |
| November 2, 1889 | 328 | North Dakota and South Dakota admitted. One seat goes to the former, two to the latter. |
| November 8, 1889 | 329 | Montana admitted. |
| November 11, 1889 | 330 | Washington admitted. |
| July 3, 1890 | 331 | Idaho admitted. |
| July 10, 1890 | 332 | Wyoming admitted. |
| March 4, 1893 | 356 | Apportionment of the Eleventh Census. |
| January 4, 1896 | 357 | Utah admitted. |
1901-Present
| Date | Size | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| March 4, 1903 | 386 | Apportionment of the Twelfth Census. |
| November 16, 1907 | 391 | Oklahoma admitted. |
| January 6, 1912 | 393 | New Mexico admitted. |
| February 14, 1912 | 394 | Arizona admitted. |
| March 4, 1913 | 435 | Apportionment of the Thirteenth Census. House size locked by Public Law 62-5, excepting the admission of new states. |
| January 3, 1959 | 436 | Alaska admitted. |
| August 21, 1959 | 437 | Hawaii admitted. |
| January 3, 1963 | 435 | Apportionment of the Eighteenth Census. House size reverted to 435 per Public Law 62-5. |
Proposed expansion
Expansion would cause the United States Electoral College result to more closely reflect the national popular vote, as the number of Representatives would begin to dwarf the number of Senators, which is fixed at two per state. The Wyoming Rule, an idea with some contemporary currency, calls for expanding the House until the standard Representative-to-population ratio equals that of the smallest entitled unit (i.e. Wyoming). This proposal is primarily designed to address the fact that some House districts are currently nearly twice the size of others; for instance, there are about 944,000 residents in Montana's single district, compared to about 515,000 in Wyoming's. See List of U.S. states by population.On May 21, 2001, Rep. Alcee Hastings sent a dear colleague letter arguing that U.S. expansion of its legislature had not kept pace with other countries.
References
External links
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Last updated on Sunday May 11, 2008 at 17:29:23 PDT (GMT -0700)
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