representative - has put forward a number of 57 pesos called the wyoming rule. the maidens for with the ide that when we kept the house in 1929, 435, ever since then states have had to lose seat to give them to other states that were growing. as we stayed for another 85. california lost seats of tha another seed could go to a smaller state. as an example. if we took back all those etha given away over the century, that would bring us to tha number of 585. it would catch up really for deferred maintenance where we should ve been adding seats as we were growing rathe than the housekeeping states t get it to the wyoming rule would take th population of the smallest state, wyoming, and making tha the basis for the ratio betwee a representative and a constituents that would put the ratio a about 580,000 people and would give us 572 members of the house. that still more than te
government, the purpose of the house of representatives was proportional representation. it wasn t its only function in the founders eyes, federalis papers, james madison wrot that those elected in the hous are quote to be the great body of the people of the unite states, and quote. the washington post columnis daniel allen has written extensively on the need fo house reform in a recent column, she points out some key principles that the founders hope the house of representatives would ensure two of those principles were popular sovereignty, meaning that the government is at th will of the people and do dependence on the people meaning the representative would be beholden to their voters rather than to thei donors the principle of popular sovereignty pointed toward a governmental frame that it would flex and adjust with the ever-changing shape of the people the house was supposed t provide the necessar elasticity turning, over every two years and continuously growing and quote. when
time full of conflict as well. in the 1780s, the firs congress couldn t get a quorum they couldn t pass a budget. they couldn t pay war debts. they worked on the constitution they decided to write th constitution to solve thos problems the solution was supposed to b a stronger system of her presentation that meant not director mark received but it was also the idea that geographic is partia itself would keep people wit extreme views from fightin each other they would have to go throug representatives to get their views into the public sphere that doesn t work anymore. we cannot depend on geographic dispersal to be a break on factions. we have to find othe approaches increasingly says the house, having smaller districts wil help i think of this partly a solving the george santo problem. why was it possible for george santos to get through with eve a fraud that he had his record partly because there was n direct knowledge of him within the community of people voting for him. we could bri
again, our average numbe constituents per representativ since and more than 760,000. at the next highest comparable nation is japan, the ratio i roughly a third of hours neil allen lays out curious wh a bigger house would serve principles, our founding principles with an average of more than 750,000 people per represent constituents are almos completely removed from thei elected officials. there aren t enough resource for office to properly mee constituent needs. impossible for lawmakers t actually understand at the wants a needs of the peopl that they are supposed t represent. not only because of the shee size of each district becaus of are often dictated by a lot of - the loudest voice in the roo and powerful and highl organized political action and lobbying groups, the loudest voice in the room is often whe has the most money, no necessarily the voice of the people more seats means more options. more opportunities for a presentation a wider range of viewpoints in a body that more cl