It’s almost March! Can you believe it? Where did the time go? Well today’s post is a mixture of history and government, and a short one to start the week off…
The 86th Congress: 2 more than usual
Some background information is necessary. First, the official Census is held every 10 years, as specified in the Constitution (this is the year for it by the way). This Census is used for the reapportionment of how many U.S. Representatives each state will have in Congress. Obviously each state gets 2 Senators, but Representatives are determined based on population, i.e. the Census. The number of voting Representatives has been 435 since 1913, and was officially capped at this amount in 1929. Today the average congressional district represents approximately 650,000 citizens.
So, onto the story. Alaska joined the United States on January 3, 1959 bringing 600,000 people and 500,000 moose into the union. Hawaii joined on August 21, 1959. This presented a problem for Congress. The number of representatives was capped at 435, but the next reapportionment couldn’t take place until after the 1960 Census. And there was certainly no way any state was going to give up seats. So they decided to give both new states one seat in the House until after the Census and all 435 seats could be reallocated. At the beginning of the 87th Congress in 1961, the total number was reduced to 435.
Hawaii now has 2 congressional districts, and Alaska has an at-large seat (as does Vermont, North Dakota, and Wyoming) because their populations are smaller than the average district. The cap of representatives at 435 also does not include non-voting members, i.e. Washington, D.C., Guam, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico, all of whom have a non-voting delegate. Further problems will arise if Washington, D.C.’s seat is given voting rights.
But that’s a story for another day.
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