The United States Of America

The Constitution And Democracy

House of Representatives
House of Representatives, one of the two equal branches of the Congress. Like its counterpart, the Senate, it was created by the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and began its work in 1789, after the ratification of the Constitution by the required number of states. The first House had 65 members. It grew steadily, until by 1913 it had 435 members, a number that it has since maintained (except after the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the union in 1959, when the House temporarily expanded itself to 437).

Representatives are apportioned to the states on the basis of population; several of the least-populated states have only one representative each. The Constitution requires Congress to reapportion the representatives after every census, and Congress has usually done so.

Qualifications and Perquisites
The Constitution provides that a representative must be 25 years of age, have been a citizen of the United States for seven years, and be a resident of the state that he or she is representing.

Members received a salary of $125,100 (set in 1991). Benefits include a tax-deferred savings plan, a contributory retirement program, and health and life insurance. In addition, representatives receive allowances for staff, office space rental in their home districts, travel, stationery, and telephone expenses, and have free use of the mails -- within a budget set by the House in 1990 -- for a wide range of materials. Members of the House are not subject to some kinds of legal detention and are protected by immunity from legal action for statements made in an official capacity.

Apportionment and Elections
Until 1842, Congress expressed no preference between having the states elect representatives "at large" (that is, the candidates for all of the state's seats in the House would be on the ballot in the entire state) or having them elected by single-member districts covering only part of the state's territory. In 1842, Congress, by law, established the single-member district as the normal area to be represented. State legislatures were left with the task of drawing district lines. Districts were supposed to be contiguous and compact, and contain equal numbers of inhabitants. A few states continued, for a variety of reasons, to elect at least some of their representatives at large, and many states drew district lines that violated the norms of contiguity, compactness, and equality of population.
In 1964 the U.S. Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, ruled that the Constitution required that the principle of "one man, one vote" (that is, substantial equality of population) be applied to the drawing of district lines for the federal House of Representatives. Furthermore, it said that the federal courts would intervene through legal action to ensure that the principle was adequately followed by state legislatures as they redistricted. Most states subsequently redistricted, and now there is substantial equality of population in districts within each state and between states.

Every member of the House is elected in November of each even-numbered year and serves a two-year term. Most states hold primary elections within the competing parties several months before the general election. Incumbents have a big advantage over challengers. Usually, 85% to 95% of the members of any new House, which convenes in January of odd- numbered years, have been members of the preceding House.

Organization and Rules
The House, both because of its large size and because of the great volume of business it handles, has a complex organizational structure and rules of procedure. The substantive business of the House is carried on mainly in various committees and subcommittees with fixed jurisdictions. The 102d Congress had 22 standing committees, most of them comprised of 30 to 55 members each; the standing committees were further divided into 130 subcommittees. The House may also authorize the appointment of special or select committees to look into specific problems or issues. The majority party of the House has a majority on each committee. It also controls the appointment of most committee staff members. Members of the most important standing committees have only that one assignment; those on lesser committees often serve on two.

Each committee is free to adopt its own formal rules; in addition, each develops its own norms and traditions. Thus, some committees give virtually dictatorial power to their chairmen; others spread power more widely. Some committees work in an atmosphere of great partisanship; others seek to minimize partisanship. Some have widespread agreement on the scope and direction of what they should do; others often disagree.

The three most important committees are Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Rules. Ways and Means has jurisdiction over all tax measures, which include not only taxes but also the whole social security program and tariffs. The Appropriations Committee has jurisdiction over all bills that supply money to the various government agencies for carrying out their functions. The Committee on Rules regulates the flow of business to the House floor and sets the conditions under which debate on that business takes place. Throughout most of its history the Committee on Rules has been responsive to the leaders of the majority party, principally the Speaker, who presides over the House. But from 1937 to 1961 it often stalled measures supported by the Democratic leaders (who were in the majority for all but four of those years) because conservative Democrats on the committee united with Republicans to oppose liberal proposals.

Each of the two major parties in the House also has an organization designed to increase the influence of that party on the work of the House when it acts on the business coming from the committees. The majority party names a Speaker, majority leader, and majority whip. The minority party names a minority leader and minority whip. Assistant whips in each party help the whip to win tests on the floor of the House by enforcing party discipline. Each party also has a committee to make assignments to the various standing committees, and a caucus, or conference, which consists of the entire membership of the party, to elect the principal party leaders and also to discuss substantive issues.

Collectively, the leaders perform six functions: they organize their parties and through them the House, schedule the floor business of the House, promote the most favorable attendance on the House floor, distribute to and collect from the membership a variety of information, attempt to persuade members to vote in ways they favor, and provide liaison with the White House.

Parties and the "Modern" House
From the beginning, the House was intended to be a truly popular body, responsible and responsive to the entire electorate. Political Parties made their appearance in the House early in its history, but until the Jacksonian era the parties often resembled multiple factions rather than cohesive or disciplined bodies of men who agreed on policy. The conflicts that led to the Civil War were reflected by the emergence of what amounted to multiple parties in the House. In some of the prewar years this division prevented the House from functioning. Since the Civil War there has always been a single majority party in the House at any given time and one principal minority party. This situation made possible the development of the "modern" House. It enabled the majority to centralize power in the hands of the party leaders, especially the Speaker.

By the beginning of the 20th century most House members wanted to remain in the House for a long time and make Congress their career. In 1910 some of the most arbitrary powers of the Speaker were taken away from him as a way of protecting the orderly rise to influence of individual long- time members. By about 1920 the principle of seniority for determining rank on the standing committees was well entrenched.

Influence of the House on Public Affairs
As the federal government has widened the scope of its impact on society, the influence of the House has also increased. Both the Constitution and tradition have placed the House in a particularly influential position when government activity increases. The Constitution grants it the right to originate all bills "raising revenue." By custom it also originates all bills appropriating money. The House is empowered to elect a president, with each state having one vote, if the electoral college fails to give a majority to any single candidate. The House did this in 1801 and 1825. It also is granted sole power to Impeach the President and other high federal officials, but this power is rarely used.
As the business of government has increased, the House has become virtually a year-round legislature. It processes between 9,000 and 12,000 bills yearly and helps enact several hundred public laws and a large number of private laws each year. From about 1937 until the 1960s the House was generally more conservative than the Senate in domestic matters. In general, it reacted negatively or with only cautious approval in dealing with the essentially liberal or progressive proposals originating in the White House. Not until 1964 did the House first show much enthusiasm in following the lead of a liberal and aggressive president. In foreign affairs, however, it has been much more willing to follow a president's lead.

The House has historically been more conservative than the Senate or the president for two major reasons. The first is the district system. A representative has relatively fewer interests to satisfy in order to keep his or her seat than either a senator or a president. The second is the institutional rivalry between the president or the Senate and the House. If the president is making liberal initiatives, House members, in order to preserve the integrity and independence of their institution, may react negatively, at least partially, by instinct. In viewing the Senate, most House members are skeptical of the degree of expertise possessed by the average senator.

Despite the rhetoric of rivalry, the history of the House suggests that in the 20th century it has usually had its greatest influence on public affairs when it and its leaders have worked closely with a president who views himself as the chief legislator. Thus, the House can contribute to the final legislative product by making changes in executive branch proposals, by making initiatives, and by being vigilant in overseeing the administration of its programs.

Randall B. Ripley
Ohio State University
For Further Reading
Carroll, Holbert N., The House of Representatives and Foreign Affairs (1958; reprint, Greenwood Press 1984)
Currie, James T., The United States House of Representatives (Krieger 1988)
Israel, Fred L., ed., The House of Representatives (Chelsea House 1987)
Ripley, Randall B., and Franklin, Grace A., Congress, the Bureaucracy and Public Policy, 4th ed. (Dorsey Press 1987)
Smith, Steven S., Call to Order: Floor Politics in the House and Senate (Brookings Institution 1989)