Hot Info: United States 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.

The incumbent majority party, the Republican Party had controlled the house since the 1994 election and was defeated by the Democrats who won a majority in the House ending 12 years in opposition.

The 2008 U.S. House of Representatives elections will be held on November 4, 2008, to elect members to the United States House of Representatives to serve in the 111th United States Congress from January 3, 2009 until January 3, 2011.

This article or section contains information about an upcoming or ongoing election in the United States.

The years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Union’s victory in the Civil War.

Republicans won no seats previously held by Democrats in either the House or the Senate for the first time since the party’s founding, and it was the largest seat gain for the Democrats since the 1974 elections.

The leadership structure of the House also developed during approximately the same period, with the positions of Majority Leader and Minority Leader being created in 1899.

Because its members are generally elected from smaller and more commonly homogenous districts than those from the Senate, the House is generally considered by some sources to be a more partisan chamber.

Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution sets forth three qualifications for representatives: each representative must be at least twenty-five years old, must have been a citizen of the United States for the past seven years, and must be an inhabitant of the state they represent.

Although it is very unlikely at this point, the Republicans hope to regain the majority it lost in the 2006 elections or at least add to their numbers.

Democrats, who regained a majority in the 2006 elections hope to retain or expand their control of Congress.

Delegates and Resident Commissioners may participate in debates and vote in committees.

In the mid-1970s, there were major reforms of the House, strengthening the power of sub-committees at the expense of committee chairmen and allowing party leaders to nominate committee chairs.

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.

The House meets in the south wing of the United States Capitol.

Congress has regularly increased the size of the House to account for population growth; but Congress fixed the number of voting House members at 435 in 1911 The number was temporarily increased to 437 in 1959 upon the admission of Alaska and Hawaii , and returned to 435 four years later, after the reapportionment consequent to the 1960 census.

The Democratic Party dominated the House of Representatives during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt , often winning over two-thirds of the seats.

James Madison ’s Virginia Plan called for a bicameral Congress: the lower house would be “of the people,” elected directly by the people of the United States and representing public opinion, and a more deliberative upper house that would represent the individual states, and would be less susceptible to variations of mass sentiment, would be elected by the lower house.

The House is often considered to be the “lower house,” with the Senate as the “upper house,” although the United States Constitution does not use such language.

The Speaker is the presiding officer of the House but does not preside over every debate.

Additionally, Tom Davis represents a swing district while Brad Ellsworth represents a district that is politically balanced and known for competitive races.

The House was granted its own exclusive powers: the power to initiate revenue bills, impeach officials, and elect the President in electoral college deadlocks.

Historically, membership on committees has been in rough proportion to the party’s strength in the House as a whole, with two exceptions: on the Rules Committee, the majority party fills nine of the thirteen seats; and on the Ethics Committee, each party has an equal number of seats.

Races not included should be considered “safe” for the incumbent’s party.

One advantage of the Committee of the Whole is its ability to include otherwise non-voting members of Congress.

The Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population.

The four vacancies were New Jersey’s 13th congressional district, to be filled at the same time as the general election with the winner taking office in November immediately after the votes were certified; Texas’s 22nd congressional district, with a separate special election on the same day; and Ohio’s 18th congressional district and Florida’s 16th congressional district, which did not have special elections to fill the vacancies before January 2007.

These actions were taken to undermine the seniority system, and to reduce the ability of a small number of senior members to obstruct legislation they did not favor.

Furthermore, under the Fourteenth Amendment, any federal or state officer who takes the requisite oath to support the Constitution, but later engages in rebellion or aids the enemies of the United States, is disqualified from becoming a representative.

Two recent redistrictings, in Texas in 2003 and in Georgia in 2005, have made some Democratic districts more vulnerable.