Membership And Qualifications For US House Of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. Each state receives representation in the House proportional to its population but is entitled to at least one representative; the most populous state, California, currently has 53 representatives. Public Law 62-5 of 1911 currently fixes the total number of representatives at 435, though Congress has the authority to change that number. Each representative serves for a two-year term. The presiding officer of the House is known as the Speaker, and is elected by the members. The present House delegations by state are shown in the article List of U.S. states by population.

Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of population, as determined by the census conducted every ten years. Each state, however, is entitled to at least one Representative.

The only constitutional rule relating to the size of the House says "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand." As the population of the United States increased, Congress regularly increased the size of the House after the census to account for growth; but the limit became obsolete when Congress fixed the size of the House at 435 seats in 1911. The figure was temporarily increased to 437 in 1959 to reflect the admission of Alaska and Hawaii as states (seating 1 representative from each of those states without changing existing apportionment), and returned to 435 four years later, after the reapportionment consequent to the 1960 census, prior to the 1962 election).

The Constitution does not provide for the representation of the District of Columbia or of territories. However, Congress has passed legislation permitting them to elect non-voting delegates or Resident Commissioners. One delegate each represents the District of Columbia and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico elects a Resident Commissioner, who holds the only office in the House with a four-year term; other than the longer term, the Resident Commissioner's role is identical to the delegates from the other territories. The Northern Mariana Islands do not currently elect any sort of representative to Congress, although former Rep. Richard Pombo of California that would have allowed them to do so introduced legislation. Delegates and Resident Commissioners are permitted to participate in debates and vote in committees. On 24 January 2007, the House changed its internal rules (by passing H. Res. 78 to permit the non-voting delegates and Resident Commissioner to vote in the Committee of the Whole when their votes would not be decisive.

On 19 April 2007, the House of Representatives passed HR 1905, the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2007, a bill "to provide for the treatment of the District of Columbia as a Congressional district for purposes of representation in the House of Representatives, and for other purposes" by a vote of 241 - 177. That bill proposes to increase the House membership by two, making 437 members, by converting the District of Columbia delegate into a member, and (until the 2010 census) grant one membership to Utah, which is the state next in line to receive an additional district based on its population after the 2000 Census. The bill is under consideration in the U.S. Senate during the 2007 session.