Temporary Representatives

The writers of the United States Constitution provided in Article I.2.3, "As a temporary expedient until the first census is taken, each state is entitled to a specified number of Representatives." This provision was merely a temporary procedure to insure that each state had at least one Representative in Congress. The Founders took a calculated guess as to what the population was in each state and assigned a certain number of Representatives. Virginia (10), Massachusetts (8), and Pennsylvania (8) had the most Representatives while Rhode Island (1), Delaware (1), New Hampshire (3), and Georgia (3) had the least.

Represent 30,000 People

The nineteenth provision of the United States Constitution is found in Article I.2.3: "To avoid having too many members in the House of Representatives, each Congressman must represent at least 30,000 people." This provision represents the Right of the people to have a small Congress just large enough to make the laws for the people. It is good that the Founders put the minimum figure at 30,000 Americans rather than the maximum. We would have 10,000 members in the House of Representatives today if each member represented only 30,000 Americans. A bill was passed in 1929, which provided that the number of Congressman could never exceed 435 no matter how much the population grew. With approximately 300 million Americans today, each Congressman represents approximately 690,000 Americans today.