The Different Ways of Expanding the House
Dear Readers: The recent House reapportionment shuffled a handful of seats among the states, but the number of members of the House — 435 — did not change. The House has been stuck at just 435 members since the 1910 census, save for a temporary increase to 437 to account for Alaska and Hawaii becoming states in the late 1950s. Back in 1910, there were about 213,000 Americans for every House member; today, there are about 760,000. As Crystal Ball Editor in Chief Larry J. Sabato wrote in his book A More Perfect Constitution, “There is every indication that the founders believed the House would grow with the population,” yet it has not for more than a century. First-time Crystal Ball contributor Dennis Negron today proposes ways in which Congress could expand the size of the House and delineates how many members an expanded House might have under different scenarios. — The Editors KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE — A 1929 law capping the House at 435 representatives has made the number of constituents each House member represents grow larger every census, which has created a discrepancy between small and large states. — The only framework in the Constitution is