Stop the Press: Us House Of Representatives Members

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The position of Chief Administrative Officer was created following the 1994 Republican Revolution and replaced the positions of Doorkeeper and Director of Non-Legislative and Financial Services.

Puerto Rico elects a Resident Commissioner, but other than having a four-year term, the Resident Commissioner’s role is identical to the delegates from the other territories.