It’s been over 100 years since the number of seats in the House of Representatives was fixed to 435. Since that time, the members of the house have been stretched thin, being forced to represent far more people than they realistically can handle, and by extension, making it harder for the individual needs of specific groups and regions within their district to be heard, considered, and met. It will also make it easier for the voters in their district to meet and talk with their representative.
In addition, it has been over 100 years since the number of senators was increased to two per state with the passing of the 17th amendment.
To address these issues, and provide a quite way to get new blood into congress, I propose the following changes:
- Set the minimum number of house seats to equal no less than 13 times the total number of states in the Union, and rounded up to the nearest odd number to ensure there is no ties. With the 50 states currently in the Union, that’d mean a minimum of 651 seats in the House. A fairly good increase without making discussion and debate exceptionally unwieldy. Note that this can be implemented entirely with a simple bill passed by congress.
- Require congress to increase/adjust the total number of seats in the house a minimum of once every 50 years, provided there was a significant increase or decrease in US population during that time. This may require a constitutional amendment, but there’s a chance an act of congress could also effectively enact this as well.
- Increase the minimum number of representatives per state from 1 to 3. This would ensure that even the smaller population states will benefit somewhat from the increase in house seats as well. This will definitely require a constitutional amendment, however.
- Increase the number of senators per state from 2 to 4. This would ensure the senate’s power doesn’t become too concentrated in comparison to the House. This would however, also require an amendment to the constitution.