00: 14 Intro Welcome back to the Civic Flame! IÕm your host Dr. Vayo. Last week we talked about the Ònon-delegationÓ doctrine and why we have two houses of Congress. 00:47 Today, weÕre looking at how we got the House of Representatives, why is has been capped at 435 members, and how that shapes whatÕs going on in government as we dig deeper into Article 1. 01:07 Article 1 deals with everyoneÕs favorite body of government: the US House of Representatives (and that was sarcasm because the HOR, known as Congress, is consistently rated as peopleÕs least favorite branch). You may be asking how this happens when Congress has usually an 80% or higher incumbency (or re-election) rate. Easy. There are 435 of them. The only one you need to like is yours, and most people do. You can hate the heck out of the other 434Ñand people doÑand they donÕt care. As long as 50 plus 1% of voters like their Congressman in their own district, they get reelected. This leads to people hating ÒCongressÓ as a whole, but being ok with their person. So, letÕs dig into these branches. (transition music) 02:17 Section Two: The House of Representatives 02:22 ÒThe House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers;and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.Ó What youÕll notice about this section is that we have 435 members of Congress, but that number is not stipulated here. The number we have today, 435? NPR does a great in-depth report on this called ÒStuck At 435 Representatives? Why The U.S. House Hasn't Grown With Census Counts.Ó The gist of it is to explain that for most of early US history, no one lost votes when the population grew the House just got bigger. This changes the shape of the political system and the fights for districting, etc. But, The House of Representatives website has an article about this called ÒThe Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929Ó which explains that in 1929 people thought the House was getting too big, so they decided to cap the number at 435. The Founders intended the House to grow with the nation because it is the ÒPeopleÕs House.Ó There was supposed to be small scale districts that are related in some way (via geography, culture, etc) because they are meant to represent the ground-level of democracy: the people. What the Founders wanted and whether we should care about that is a theoretical problem. A practical one when talking about the way 435 shapes districts is that because each state has to have 1 member of Congress, some states ONLY have one. This is part of the Connecticut Compromise (remember, in the Articles of Confederation, there was only one house of Congress. When drafting the US Constitution, the goal was to get equal representation so small states werenÕt shut out by bug states (the Senate) but also proportional representation so that populous states werenÕt held hostage by equal vote weight given to much smaller populations (the Senate). So, the Compromise is that more populous states get more members of the House. California, our most populous state with 39.43Êmillion has 52 members. The least populous state Wyoming has 587,618 people and 1 member of Congress. But, this results in 1 Representative in California representing just over 758,000 people, and 1 in Wyoming representing 587, 618. But the population of Rhode Island is 1.112Êmillion and the population of Montanna is 1.137Êmillion and they each have two representatives, while the population of Delaware is 1.052Êmillion and they only have 1. This leads to a lot of frustration and, when you add gerrymandering, people both feel and are stuffed into electoral districts that are not designed to represent them. It creates a lot of tension. On and off, there has been talk of trying to find ways to increase the House of Representatives. Inevitably, the government will not be perfect. ThatÕs the point. The compromise of the House and the Senate sort of leans into this imperfection by trying to find a middle ground. Remember, every piece of legislation has to pass the House and the Senate identically. That means that whatever the issues with representation, to get law, there has to be some level of agreement between populous and not populous states. But, there are some real questions about whether we can make the House a fairer representation. WeÕll talk more about this later. The last thing from Section Two to notice is that is says the House has the sole power of impeachment. Why does this matter? Actualy is has little to do with the power itself and more to do with the fact that this power is dedicated solely and explicitly to the House. What this shows us is that when the framers wanted to be specific about some group to have a specific power and be the only group to have that power, they were clear. The House clearly has this power and no one else. As weÕll talk about in enumerated powers, when there are specific powers that the House has, those are listed. But there is a question about when another branch can also have those powers. Article 1, sect 1 gives us the non-delegation doctrine: only Congress has these powers. But, when is it the House and when is it the Senate? Well, this has been a problem for the Supreme Court for a while, and I imagine it will continue to be. (transition music) Next week, weÕll get into Article 1, Section 3 and talk about the Senate. Until then, keep the civic flame burning!