The Apportionment Act of 1911 (, ) was an
apportionment
The legal term apportionment (french: apportionement; Mediaeval Latin: , derived from la, portio, share), also called delimitation, is in general the distribution or allotment of proper shares, though may have different meanings in different c ...
bill passed by the
United States Congress on August 8, 1911. The law initially set the number of members of the
United States House of Representatives at 433, effective with the
63rd Congress
The 63rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1913, to ...
on March 4, 1913.
[''Apportionment Act of 1911'', , ] It also included, in section 2, a provision to add an additional seat for each of the anticipated new states of
Arizona and
New Mexico (which happened in 1912), bringing the total number of seats to 435.
[
]
Previous apportionment
To give effect to the requirements of Article One, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
and Section Two of the Fourteenth Amendment that United States representatives be apportioned to the states in proportion to their respective populations, Congress would pass Apportionment Acts following each Census, starting with the Apportionment Act of 1792.
Prior to the Apportionment Act of 1911, the Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
/ Vinton ( largest remainder) method was used in the apportionment of seats since 1850. In addition to setting the number of U.S. Representatives at 435, the Apportionment Act of 1911 returned to the Webster
Webster may refer to:
People
*Webster (surname), including a list of people with the surname
*Webster (given name), including a list of people with the given name
Places Canada
*Webster, Alberta
*Webster's Falls, Hamilton, Ontario
United State ...
method of apportionment of U.S. Representatives.
Text
Subsequent apportionment
For the first and only time, Congress failed to pass an apportionment act after the 1920 census. This left the allocations of the Act of 1911 in place until the 1930 census. The Reapportionment Act of 1929 established a method for reallocating seats among the states, given population shifts and the maximum of 435 representatives. A 1941 amendment to the 1929 act made the apportionment process self-executing after each decennial census. This lifted Congress's responsibility to pass an apportionment act for each census, and ensured that the events surrounding the 1920 census would not happen again. The number of U.S. Representatives increased temporarily to 437 when Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as states during the 86th Congress (seating one member from each of those states without changing the apportionment of the other seats). After the 1960 census and the 1962 election, that number went back to 435.
See also
* United States congressional apportionment
* Redistricting
Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Member FAQ, "What is the size of the House of Representatives and how is it determined?"
- Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
1911 in American law
United States federal government administration legislation
62nd United States Congress