There have been 435 seats in the House for so long now that it might seem as if the Founding Fathers had foreseen it as a natural ceiling for the chamber’s size. But that isn’t the case: 435 is entirely arbitrary. The House arrived at that number because of political expediency — and it has stayed there because of it, too.
Up until 1910, when the chamber expanded from 391 to 435 seats,4 the size of the House had experienced a mostly unchecked pattern of growth. Only once, after the 1840 census, did the number of seats in the House not increase; 1910, however, marked the last time the House grew, even though the U.S. population has more than tripled since then, from over 90 million in 1910 to over 330 million today.
So you’re saying for 113 years now, there’s been a grand conspiracy where everyone in DC has agreed to deny Americans accurate representation?
It’s capped because of physical space bud. They could telework these days
*But my point was the space in the Capitol Building is finite, it’s not a fucking TARDIS. Not every house rep gets an office in that building
They have offices in an adjoing building.
I feel like I’m explaining to my dog the mailman doesn’t show up everyday to steal his food, it’s an entirely simple concept. There’s not space for all 435 to have an office there.
You’re linking an entire long and insightful article that precisely explains why the number of representatives was capped and that never once mentions that it was because of physical office space - and yet your takeaway is that it was capped because America ran out of office space for its representatives.
Maybe you should work on your reading comprehension?
Can you point out where you’re seeing the cap based on space? I read your article and it looks like it was capped due to the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act.
In fact, until the House was capped at 435 seats2 by the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act, each apportionment period was regularly accompanied by clashes over how to best divvy up political power in Congress — including the size of the House.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-house-got-stuck-at-435-seats/
It can be changed literally whenever…
So you’re saying for 113 years now, there’s been a grand conspiracy where everyone in DC has agreed to deny Americans accurate representation?
It’s capped because of physical space bud. They could telework these days
*But my point was the space in the Capitol Building is finite, it’s not a fucking TARDIS. Not every house rep gets an office in that building
They have offices in an adjoing building.
I feel like I’m explaining to my dog the mailman doesn’t show up everyday to steal his food, it’s an entirely simple concept. There’s not space for all 435 to have an office there.
Pelosi is no longer the most recent ex-speaker.
Wow.
You’re linking an entire long and insightful article that precisely explains why the number of representatives was capped and that never once mentions that it was because of physical office space - and yet your takeaway is that it was capped because America ran out of office space for its representatives.
Maybe you should work on your reading comprehension?
It’s capped because they ran out of seats in the chamber…
My point is that there’s finate space. And they won’t add more.
Which is why the vast majority of house reps have their offices in an adjoining building.
Why do you think there’s just a bunch of empty offices no one are using in the Capitol Building?
Can you point out where you’re seeing the cap based on space? I read your article and it looks like it was capped due to the 1929 Permanent Apportionment Act.
No, it’s not.
Why don’t you just read the fucking article that you posted? You might learn something.