The House of Representatives
Current House Details:
last updated: Mar 10, 2021
Speaker of the House: Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Party breakdown (As of Jan 3, 2021):
Democrats: 222 (majority)
Republicans: 211
Other: 0
Vacancies: 3
About The House
The House of Representatives, often referred to as "the House," is the lower chamber of Congress.
The very first Congress had only 65 representatives. The number grew over time as new states were added to the country and the population grew, leading to the current number of 435 representatives. In 1911, Congress passed a law limiting the total number of representatives to 435.
Each state has a different number of representatives determined by the state's population as determined every ten years by the census. With a U.S. population that is currently just under 330,740,000, this results in only one voting member of the House for every 760,000 Americans. This makes the U.S. one of the least representative industrialized democracies in the world, in terms of constituents per legislator. This is the highest that ratio has been in U.S. history and with the country’s population continually growing and the size of the House capped by law since 1929, it’s unlikely to change in the near future.
In addition, there are wide representation ratios across states. The data below is from 2017. It shows Rhode Island with one Representative per 529.800 residents (the lowest ratio at that point) and Montana with only one per 1,050,493 residents.
Representatives are elected to a new term every two years, compared to every 6 years in the Senate. There are no term limits in the House, so a person can be a representative for as long as they continue to get re-elected.
Article I of the Constitution describes the following requirements for being a representative:
They must be a minimum of 25 years old.
They must have been a US citizen for a minimum of 7 years.
They must live in the state that they represent.
The leader of the House of Representatives is called the Speaker of the House, and is selected by a majority vote of the members of the House. They are responsible for moderating debates, setting the order of business, and deciding who is on certain committees. The Speaker is also second in line of presidential succession, just after the vice president.
You can stay up to date on current workings in the House here: