United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives
Seal of the House of Representatives.svg
Type
Type Lower house
Leadership
Speaker
 Nancy Pelosi, (D)
since January 4, 2007
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, (D)
since January 4, 2007
Minority Leader John Boehner, (R)
since January 4, 2007
Structure
Members 435 plus 5 non-voting members
Political groups Democratic Party
Republican Party
Election
Last election November 4, 2008
Meeting place
State of the Union.jpg
United States Capitol
Web site
www.house.gov
For the current Congress, see 110th United States Congress.

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. Each state receives representation in the House in proportion to its population but is entitled to at least one Representative. The most populous state, California, currently has 53 representatives. The total number of voting representatives is currently fixed at 435.[1] Each representative serves for a two-year term. The presiding officer of the House is the Speaker, and is elected by the members.

Because its members are generally elected from smaller (an average of 693,000 residents as of 2007) and more commonly homogeneous districts than those from the Senate, the House is generally considered by some sources to be a more partisan chamber. The House was granted its own exclusive powers: the power to initiate revenue bills, impeach officials, and elect the President in electoral college deadlocks.

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

Contents

History

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Main article: History of the United States House of Representatives

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was a unicameral body in which each state held one vote. The ineffectiveness of the federal government under the Articles led Congress to summon a Constitutional Convention in 1787; all states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates. The issue of how Congress was to be structured was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. 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. Both houses' approval is necessary for the passage of legislation. 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 smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, which called for a unicameral Congress with equal representation for the states.

Eventually, the Convention reached the Connecticut Compromise, or the Great Compromise, under which one house of Congress (the House of Representatives) would provide representation proportional to each state's population, whereas the other (the Senate) would provide equal representation amongst the states. The Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states (nine out of the 13) in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4, 1789. The House began work on April 1, 1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time.

During the first half of the 19th Century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives. However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed.

Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery. One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican-American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War (1861–1865), which began soon after several southern states attempted to secede from the Union. The war culminated in the South's defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the Senate did not have the balance of power between North and South during the war.

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. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877; the ensuing era, known as the Gilded Age, was marked by sharp political divisions in the electorate. Both the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times.

Republican Thomas Brackett Reed, occasionally ridiculed as "Czar Reed," was a U.S. Representative from Maine, and Speaker of the House from 1889–1891 and from 1895–1899.

The late 19th and early 20th Centuries also saw a dramatic increase in the power of the Speaker of the House. The rise of the Speaker's influence began in the 1890s, during tenure of Republican Thomas Brackett Reed. "Czar Reed," as he was nicknamed, attempted to put into effect his view that "The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch." 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. While the Minority Leader was the head of the minority party, the Majority Leader remained subordinate to the Speaker. The Speakership reached its zenith during the term of Republican Joseph Gurney Cannon, 1903 to 1911. The powers of the Speaker included chairmanship of the influential Rules Committee and the ability to appoint members of other House committees. These powers, however, were curtailed in the "Revolution of 1910" because of the efforts of Democrats and dissatisfied Republicans who opposed Cannon's arguably heavy-handed tactics.

The Democratic Party dominated the House of Representatives during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), often winning over two-thirds of the seats. Both Democrats and Republicans were in power at various times during the next decade. The Democratic Party maintained control of the House from 1954 until 1995. 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. 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. There was also a shift from the 1970s to greater control of the legislative program by the majority party; in particular, the power of party leaders (especially the Speaker) grew considerably.

The Republicans took control of the House in 1995, under the leadership of Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich attempted to pass a major legislative program, the Contract with America on which the House Republicans had been elected, and made major reforms of the House, notably reducing the tenure of committee chairs to three two-year terms. Many elements of the Contract did not pass Congress, were vetoed by President Bill Clinton, or were substantially altered in negotiations with Clinton. The Republicans held on to the House until the United States Congressional elections, 2006, during which the Democrats won back control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Membership and qualifications

Apportionment

Further information: United States congressional apportionment

Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states by population, as determined by the census conducted every ten years. Each state, however, is entitled to at least one Representative.

The only constitutional rule relating to the size of the House says: "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand."[2] 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.[1] The number was temporarily increased to 437 in 1959 upon the admission of Alaska and Hawaii (seating one representative from each of those states without changing existing apportionment), and returned to 435 four years later, after the reapportionment consequent to the 1960 census.

The Constitution does not provide for the representation of the District of Columbia or of territories. However, those places elect non-voting delegates or, in the case of Puerto Rico a Resident Commissioner. The District of Columbia and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are represented by one delegate each. 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. The Northern Mariana Islands will elect their first delegate in November 2008, who will take office in January 2009. Delegates and Resident Commissioners may participate in debates and vote in committees. They may vote in the Committee of the Whole when their votes would not be decisive.[3]

Redistricting

States that are entitled to more than one Representative are divided into single-member districts. This has been a federal statutory requirement since 1967.[4] Prior to that law, general ticket representation was used by some states. Typically, states redraw these district lines (see redistricting) after each census, though they may do so at other times (see 2003 Texas redistricting). Each state determines its own district boundaries, either through legislation or through non-partisan panels. "Malapportionment" is unconstitutional and districts must be approximately equal in population (see Wesberry v. Sanders). The Voting Rights Act prohibits states from "gerrymandering" districts to reduce racial minorities' voting power.

Using gerrymandering for political gain is not prohibited, even when political gerrymandering incidentally involves the creation of racially concentrated districts. Because of gerrymandering, fewer than 10% of all House seats are seriously contested in most election cycles. Since over 90% of House members are nearly guaranteed reelection every two years because of lack of electoral competition, elections have been criticized as being contrary to fair competition, one of the principles of democracy.

Qualifications

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 (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state they represent. In Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486 (1969), the Supreme Court held that the constitutional requirements of Article I, Section 2 for election to Congress are the maximum requirements that can be imposed on a candidate. Therefore, Article I, Section 5, which permits each House to be the judge of the qualifications of its own members does not permit either House to establish additional qualifications.

The Constitution does not require Members to live in the districts which they represent. The age and citizenship qualifications for representatives are less stringent than those for senators.

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. This provision, which came into force soon after the end of the American Civil War, was intended to prevent those who sided with the Confederacy from serving. The Amendment, however, allows a disqualified individual to serve if they gain consent of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress.

Elections

Elections for representatives are held in every even-numbered year, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (see Election Day (United States)). Generally, the Republican and Democratic parties choose their candidates for each district in primary elections, which are typically held several months before. Ballot access rules for independent and third-party candidates vary greatly from state to state.

Since 1967, Federal law requires that House races use the single-member-district, first-past-the-post voting system, explicitly banning the use of proportional representation.[5] Louisiana is unique in that it holds an all-party "primary election" on the general Election Day, with a subsequent runoff election between the top two finishers (regardless of party) if no candidate receives a majority in the primary. Seats vacated during a term are filled through special elections, though that election will sometimes not take place until the next general election date. A member chosen in a special election usually takes office as soon thereafter as possible.

Terms

Representatives and delegates serve for two-year terms, while the Resident Commissioner serves for four years. Once elected, a representative continues to serve until the expiry of their term, death, or resignation. Furthermore, the Constitution permits the House to expel any member with a two-thirds vote. In the history of the United States, only five members have been expelled from the House; three of them, John Bullock Clark (D-MO), John William Reid (D-MO), and Henry Cornelius Burnett (D-KY), were removed in 1861 for supporting the Confederate States' secession, which led to the Civil War. Michael Myers (D-PA) was expelled for accepting bribes in 1980, and James Traficant (D-OH) was expelled in 2002 following his conviction for corruption. The House also has the power to formally censure or reprimand its members; censure or reprimand requires only a simple majority, but does not remove a member from office.

Comparison to the Senate

Many of the Founding Fathers intended the Senate (whose members were originally chosen by the state legislatures) to be a check on the popularly elected House, just as the House was to be a check on the Senate. The "advice and consent" powers (such as the power to approve treaties) were therefore granted to the Senate alone. The House, however, can initiate spending bills and has exclusive authority to impeach officials and choose the President in an electoral college deadlock. The Senate and its members generally have greater prestige than the House because Senators serve longer terms (six years) in a smaller body and (in all but seven states) represent larger constituencies than Representatives.

Salary and benefits

Salaries

As of January 1, 2008, the annual salary of each Representative is $169,300.[6] The Speaker of the House and the Majority and Minority Leaders earn more. The Speaker earned $212,100 during the 109th Congress (January 4, 2005-January 3, 2007) while the party leaders earned $183,500 (the same as Senate leaders). A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it. Congress sets members' salaries; however, the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a change in wages from taking effect during the same Congress in which it was enacted. Representatives are eligible for lifetime benefits after serving for five years, including a pension, health benefits, and social security benefits.[7]

Titles

Representatives use the prefix "The Honorable" before their names. A member of the House is referred to as a "Representative," "Member of Congress," "Congressman" or "Congresswoman." While Senators are technically "Members of Congress," that term is generally used to refer to Members of the House of Representatives exclusively. The Delegates and the Resident Commissioner use the same styles and titles as Members of the House.

Officers

Republican Dennis Hastert, U.S. Representative from Illinois who served as Speaker of the House until January 2007, calling the House to order at the beginning of a session of Congress.

Member Officials

The party with a majority of seats in the House is known as the majority party; the next-largest party is the minority party. The Speaker, committee chairmen, and some other officials are generally from the majority party; they have counterparts (for instance, the "ranking members" of committees) in the minority party.

The Constitution provides that the House may choose its own Speaker. Although not explicitly required by the Constitution, every Speaker has been a member of the House. The Constitution does not specify the duties and powers of the Speaker, which are instead regulated by the rules and customs of the House. The Speaker has a role both as a leader of the House and the leader of his or her party (which need not be the majority party; theoretically, a member of the minority party could be elected as Speaker with the support of a fraction of members of the majority party). Under the Presidential Succession Act (1947), the Speaker is second in the line of presidential succession behind the Vice President.

The Speaker is the presiding officer of the House but does not preside over every debate. Instead, he or she delegates the responsibility of presiding to other members in most cases. The presiding officer sits in a chair in the front of the House chamber. The powers of the presiding officer are extensive; one important power is that of controlling the order in which members of the House speak. No member may make a speech or a motion unless he or she has first been recognized by the presiding officer. Moreover, the presiding officer may rule on any "point of order" (a member's objection that a rule has been breached), but the decision is subject to appeal to the whole House.

The Speaker is the chair of his or her party's steering committee, which chooses the chairmen of standing committees. The Speaker determines which committees consider bills, appoints most of the members of the Rules Committee, and appoints all members of conference committees. When the Presidency and Senate are controlled by a different party from the one controlling the House, the Speaker can become the de facto "leader of the opposition." Since the Speaker is a partisan officer with substantial power to control the business of the House, the position is often used for partisan advantage.

Each party elects a floor leader, who is known as the Majority Leader or Minority Leader. While the Minority Leader is the full leader of his party, the same is not true of the Majority Leader. Instead, the Speaker is the head of the majority party; the Majority Leader is only the second-highest official. Party leaders decide what legislation members of their party should either support or oppose. Each party also elects a whip, who works to ensure that the party's members vote as the party leadership desires. The current majority whip in the House of Representatives is James E. Clyburn, who is a member of the Democratic Party. The current minority whip is Roy Blunt, who is a member of the Republican Party. Representatives are generally less independent of party leaders than senators, and usually vote as the leadership directs. Incentives to cooperate include the leadership's power to select committee chairmen. As a result, the leadership plays a much greater role in the House than in the Senate, an example of why the atmosphere of the House is regarded by many as more partisan.

Non-member officials

The House is also served by several officials who are not members. The House's chief officer is the Clerk, who maintains public records, prepares documents, and oversees junior officials, including pages. The Clerk also presides over the House at the beginning of each new Congress pending the election of a Speaker. Another officer is the Chief Administrative Officer, responsible for the day-to-day administrative support to the House of Representatives. This includes everything from payroll to food service.

The position of Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) was created following the 1994 Republican Revolution and replaced the positions of Doorkeeper and Director of Non-Legislative and Financial Services (which had been created only two years prior to provide a nonpartisan management body to administer those functions of the House that should not be under partisan control). The CAO also assumed some of the responsibilities of the House Information Services, which previously had been controlled directly by the Committee on House Administration, at the time headed by Representative Charlie Rose of North Carolina, along with the House "Folding Room."

The Chaplain leads the House in prayer at the opening of the day. There is also a Sergeant at Arms, who as the House's chief law enforcement officer, maintains order and security on House premises. Finally, routine police work is handled by the United States Capitol Police, which is supervised by the Capitol Police Board, a body to which the Sergeant at Arms belongs.

Procedure

The chamber of the United States House of Representatives is located in the south wing of the Capitol building, in Washington, D.C. This photograph shows a rare glimpse of the four vote tallying boards (the blackish squares across the top), which display each member's name and vote while votes are in progress. The screens are notably used by Congressional leaders to identify which members are voting against party lines.
Main article: Procedures of the United States House of Representatives

Daily Procedures

Like the Senate, the House of Representatives meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. At one end of the chamber of the House is a rostrum from which the Speaker presides. The lower tier of the rostrum is used by clerks and other officials. Members' seats are arranged in the chamber in a semicircular pattern; the seats are divided by a wide central aisle. By tradition, Democrats sit on the right of the center aisle, while Republicans sit on the left, as viewed from the presiding officer's chair. Sittings are normally held on weekdays; meetings on Saturdays and Sundays are rare. Sittings of the House are generally open to the public and are broadcast live on television by C-SPAN.

The procedure of the House depends not only on the rules, but also on a variety of customs, precedents, and traditions. In many cases, the House waives some of its stricter rules (including time limits on debates) by unanimous consent. Any member may block a unanimous consent agreement, but in practice, objections are rare. The presiding officer enforces the rules of the House, and may warn members who deviate from them. The presiding officer uses a gavel to maintain order. The box in which legislation is placed to be considered by the House is called the hopper.

In one of its first resolutions, the U.S. House of Representatives established the Office of the Sergeant at Arms. In an American tradition adopted from English custom in 1789 by the first Speaker of the House, Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, the House of Representatives’ mace is used both to open all sessions of the House and during the inaugural ceremonies for all Presidents of the United States. For daily sessions of the House, the sergeant at Arms carries the mace in front of the Speaker in procession to the rostrum. It is placed on a green marble pedestal to the Speaker's right. When the House in committee, the mace is moved to a pedestal next to the desk of the Sergeant at Arms.

The Constitution provides that a majority of the House constitutes a quorum to do business. Under the rules and customs of the House, a quorum is always assumed to be present unless a quorum call explicitly demonstrates otherwise. House rules prevent any member from making a point of order that a quorum is not present unless a question is being voted upon; the presiding officer will not accept a point of order of no quorum during general debate or when a question is not before the House.

During debates, a member may only speak if called upon by the presiding officer. The presiding officer may determine which members to recognize, and may therefore control the course of debate. All speeches must be addressed to the presiding officer, using the words "Mr. Speaker" or "Madam Speaker." Only the presiding officer may be directly addressed in speeches; other members must be referred to in the third person. In most cases, members do not refer to each other by name, but by state, using forms such as "the gentleman from Virginia" or "the gentlewoman from California."

Passage of legislation

Before legislation reaches the floor of the House, the Rules Committee normally passes a rule to govern debate on that measure. For instance, the committee determines if amendments to the bill are permitted. An "open rule" permits all germane amendments, but a "closed rule" restricts or even prohibits amendment. Debate on a bill is generally restricted to one hour, equally divided between the majority and minority parties. Each side is led during the debate by a "floor manager," who allocates debate time to members who wish to speak. On contentious matters, many members may wish to speak; thus, a member may receive as little as one minute, or even thirty seconds, to make his/her point.

When debate concludes, the motion in question is put to a vote. In many cases, the House votes by voice vote; the presiding officer puts the question, and Members respond either "Yea" (in favor of the motion) or "Nay" (against the motion). The presiding officer then announces the result of the voice vote. Any member, however, may challenge the presiding officer's assessment and "request the yeas and nays" or "request a recorded vote." The request may be granted only if it is seconded by one-fifth of the members present. In practice, however, members of congress second requests for recorded votes as a matter of courtesy. Recorded votes are automatically held in some cases, such as votes on the annual budget.

The House may vote in three manners. First, the House may vote by electronic device; each member uses a personal identification card to record his vote at one of 46 voting stations in the chamber. Votes are almost always held by electronic device. Secondly, the House may conduct a teller vote. Members hand in colored cards to indicate their votes: green for "Yea," red for "Nay," and orange for "Present" (i.e., to abstain). Teller votes are normally held only when the computer system breaks down. Finally, the House may conduct a roll call vote. The Clerk reads the list of members of the House, each of whom announces his vote when his name is called. This procedure is reserved for very formal votes (such as the election of a Speaker) because of the time consumed by calling over four hundred names.

Voting traditionally lasts for fifteen minutes, but it may be extended if the leadership needs to "whip" more Congressmen into alignment. The 2003 vote on the Prescription Drug Benefit was open for three hours, from 3:00 to 6:00 a.m., to receive four additional votes, three of which were necessary to pass the legislation. The 2005 vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement was open for one hour, from 11:00 p.m. to midnight. An October 2005 vote on facilitating refinery construction was kept open for forty minutes.

The presiding officer may vote, like any other member. If a vote is tied, the presiding officer does not have a casting vote (unless he has not yet cast his vote). Instead, motions are decided in the negative when ties arise.

Committees

Main articles: United States Congressional committee and List of United States House committees

The House uses committees (as well as their subcommittees) for a variety of purposes, including the review of bills and the oversight of the executive branch. The appointment of committee members is formally made by the whole House, but the choice of members is actually made by the political parties. Generally, each party honors the preferences of individual congressmen and congresswomen, giving priority on the basis of seniority. 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;[8] and on the Ethics Committee, each party has an equal number of seats.[9] However, when party control in the House is closely divided, extra seats on committees are sometimes allocated to the majority party (For example in the 109th Congress, the Republicans controlled about 53% of the House as a whole, but had 54% of the Appropriations Committee members, 55% of the members on the Energy and Commerce Committee, 58% of the members on the Judiciary Committee, and 69% of the members on the Rules Committee).

The largest committee of the House is the Committee of the Whole, which, as its name suggests, consists of all members of the House. The Committee meets in the House chamber; it may consider and amend bills, but may not grant them final passage. Generally, the debate procedures of the Committee of the Whole are more flexible than those of the House itself. One advantage of the Committee of the Whole is its ability to include otherwise non-voting members of Congress.

Most committee work is performed by twenty standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a specific field such as Agriculture or International Relations. Each standing committee considers, amends, and reports bills that fall under its jurisdiction. Committees have extensive powers with regard to bills; they may block legislation from reaching the floor of the House. Standing committees also oversee the departments and agencies of the executive branch. In discharging their duties, standing committees have the power to hold hearings and to subpoena witnesses and evidence.

The House also has one permanent committee that is not a standing committee, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Furthermore, the Congress includes joint committees, which include members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Some joint committees oversee independent government bodies; for instance, the Joint Committee on the Library oversees the Library of Congress. Other joint committees serve to make advisory reports; for example, there exists a Joint Committee on Taxation. Bills and nominees are not referred to joint committees. Hence, the power of joint committees is considerably lower than those of standing committees.

Each House committee and subcommittee is led by a chairman (always a member of the majority party). From 1910 to the 1970s, committee chairmen were very powerful. Woodrow Wilson in the 1880s suggested:

Power is nowhere concentrated; it is rather deliberately and of set policy scattered amongst many small chiefs. It is divided up, as it were, into forty-seven seigniories, in each of which a Standing Committee is the court-baron and its chairman lord-proprietor. These petty barons, some of them not a little powerful, but none of them within the reach of the full powers of rule, may at will exercise almost despotic sway within their own shires, and may sometimes threaten to convulse even the realm itself.

From 1910 to 1975 committee and subcommittee chairmanship was determined purely by seniority; men sometimes had to wait 30 years to get one, but their chairmanship was independent of party leadership. The rules were changed in 1975 to permit party caucuses to elect chairmen, shifting power upward to the party leaders. In 1995, Republicans under Newt Gingrich set a limit of three two-year terms for committee chairmen. The Democrats who took over in 2007 have not decided whether to continue the Gingrich rules. The chairman's powers are extensive; they control the committee/subcommittee agenda, and may prevent the committee from dealing with a bill. The senior member of the minority party, is known as the Ranking Member. In some committees like Appropriations, partisan disputes are few.

Legislative functions

Most bills may be introduced in either House of Congress. However, the Constitution provides that "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives." As a result, the Senate does not have the power to initiate bills imposing taxes. Furthermore, the House of Representatives holds that the Senate does not have the power to originate appropriation bills, or bills authorizing the expenditure of federal funds. Historically, the Senate has disputed the interpretation advocated by the House. However, whenever the Senate originates an appropriations bill, the House simply refuses to consider it, thereby settling the dispute in practice. The constitutional provision barring the Senate from introducing revenue bills is based on the practice of the British Parliament, in which only the House of Commons may originate such measures.

Although it cannot originate revenue bills, the Senate retains the power to amend or reject them. As Woodrow Wilson wrote:

[T]he Senate's right to amend [revenue bills] has been allowed the widest possible scope. The upper house may add to them what it pleases; may go altogether outside of their original provisions and tack to them entirely new features of legislation, altering not only the amounts but even the objects of expenditure, and making out of the materials sent them by the popular chamber measures of an almost totally new character.

The approval of both the Senate and the House of Representatives is required for any bill, including a revenue bill, to become law. Both Houses must pass the exact same version of the bill; if there are differences, they may be resolved by a conference committee, which includes members of both bodies. For the stages through which bills pass in the Senate, see Act of Congress.

The President may veto any bill passed by the House and Senate; if he does, the bill cannot become law unless both chambers reconsider the bill and a two-thirds majority in each chamber support re-passage of the bill over the objections of the President. (see Veto override).

Checks and balances

The Constitution provides that the Senate's "advice and consent" is necessary for the President to make certain appointments and to ratify treaties, while the House must confirm the nomination of a new Vice President under the 25th Amendment. Thus, in terms of potential to frustrate Presidential appointments, the powers of the Senate are more extensive than those of the House.

The Constitution empowers the House of Representatives to impeach federal officials for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" and empowers the Senate to try such impeachments. The House may approve "articles of impeachment" by a simple majority vote; however, a two-thirds vote is required for conviction in the Senate. A convicted official is automatically removed from office; in addition, the Senate may stipulate that the defendant be banned from holding office in the future. No further punishment is permitted during the impeachment proceedings; however, the party may face criminal penalties in a normal court of law.

In the history of the United States, the House of Representatives has impeached sixteen officials, of whom seven were convicted. (Another, Richard Nixon, resigned after the House Judiciary Committee passed articles of impeachment but before a formal impeachment vote by the full House.) Only two Presidents of the United States have ever been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Both trials ended in acquittal; in Johnson's case, the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

Under the Twelfth Amendment, the House has the power to elect the President if no presidential candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College. The Twelfth Amendment requires the House to choose from the three candidates with the highest numbers of electoral votes. The Constitution provides that "the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote." Electoral College deadlocks are rare; in the history of the United States, the House has only had to break a deadlock twice. In 1800, it elected Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr; in 1824, it elected John Q. Adams over Andrew Jackson and William H. Crawford. The power to elect the Vice President in the case of an Electoral College deadlock belongs to the Senate.

Latest election results and party summary

Percentage of House members for each party by state at the beginning of the 110th Congress.
Current percentage of House members for each party by state.

By majority in delegations

Main articles: United States House of Representatives elections, 2006, Current members of the United States Congress, and 110th Congress
Affiliation Members Delegates
/ Resident
Commissioner
(non-voting)		 States with
majority of
Members
  Democratic Party 236 4 27
  Republican Party 198 1 21
  Vacant 1 0
Total 435 5
[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the November 7, 2006 United States House of Representatives election results
Party Seats Popular Vote
2004 2006 +/−  % Vote  % +/−
Democratic Party 202 233 +31 53.6% 42,082,311 52.0% +5.4%
Republican Party 232 202 −30 46.4% 35,674,808 44.1% −5.1%
  Independent 1 0 −1 0.0% 436,279 0.5% −0.1%
  Libertarian Party − − − − 650,614 0.8% −0.1%
  Green Party − − − − 293,606 0.4% +0.1%
  Working Families Party − − − − 164,638 0.2% +0.1%
  Independence Party − − − − 135,027 0.2% 0.0%
  Constitution Party − − − − 128,655 0.2% +0.1%
  Reform Party − − − − 53,862 0.0% −0.1%
  Other parties − − − − 210,884 0.3% −1.5%
Totals 435 435 − 100.0% 80,975,537 100.0% −
Voter turnout: 36.8%
Sources: Ballot Access News, 2006 Vote for U.S. House

See also

References

Surveys

Before 1945

Since 1945

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 See Public Law 62-5 of 1911, though Congress has the authority to change that number
  2. ↑ Article I, Section 2.
  3. ↑ See H.Res. 78, passed January 24, 2007. On April 19, 2007, the House of Representatives passed the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2007, a bill "to provide for the treatment of the District of Columbia as a Congressional district for purposes of representation in the House of Representatives, and for other purposes" by a vote of 241 - 177. That bill proposes to increase the House membership by two, making 437 members, by converting the District of Columbia delegate into a member, and (until the 2010 census) grant one membership to Utah, which is the state next in line to receive an additional district based on its population after the 2000 Census. The bill was under consideration in the U.S. Senate during the 2007 session.
  4. ↑ 2 U.S.C. § 2c "no district to elect more than one Representative"
  5. ↑ 2 U.S.C. § 2c
  6. ↑ Brudnick, Ida A. (2008-02-21). "[http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/97-1011.pdf Salaries of Members of Congress: A List of Payable Rates and Effective Dates, 1789-2008]". Retrieved on 2008-07-10.
  7. ↑ USGovInfo.com (accessed 2007-12-14).
  8. ↑ rules.house.gov
  9. ↑ ethics.house.gov

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