In the recent Canadian election, a nation of 40 million elected 343 members of Parliament, each representing 117,000 people. In the most recent U.S. election, a nation of a 331 million elected 435 members of Congress, each representing 761,000 people. Perhaps Canadians feel less alienated from their government because their representatives serve constituencies only 1/6 as big. The number of members in the U.S. House is not specified in the Constitution. It grew steadily until Congress voted to cap it at it 435 in 1929. The U.S. population then was 125 million, so each member of Congress represented 282,000 people. As recently as 2000, when the U.S. population was 261 million, each member of Congress represented 646,000 people. Congress voting to cap the number of constituents in each district at 646,000 rather than capping the total number of districts would raise the number of House members to 512; if Congress capped the number of constituents in each district at 575,000 , what it was in 1990, the number of House members would rise to 576. This change would not require a constitutional amendment, only Congress voting to lift the cap on the number of congressional districts it arbitrarily imposed in 1929. The House chamber, which currently seats 850 for a State of the Union address, 450 on the floor, 400 in the gallery, could easily be remodeled to seat 450 on the floor, 200 in a mezzanine, and 200 in the gallery and still leave room for future growth.
David Glassberg
Amherst