The reapportionment Act of 1929 was passed because membership in the house needed to be capped to prevent an excessive number of members.
On June 11, 1929, the House of Representatives passed the apportionment ACT which adjusted the number of representative as 435. The constitution of the United States called for at least one representative per state and that no more than one representatives for 30,000 persons. The size of state house delegation of a state will consequently relied on its population.
However, the founders were confused as to how large future congress should be after each federal census. The founders were also confused as to the method to be used to reapportion the house.
This uncertainty disturbed the congress as the United States territories widened and its population increased.
Normally, the House of Representatives reapportion itself in a way that didn’t affect the representation of most states. However, the method of calculating apportionment really affected the rural states by losing their representation to larger urbanized states.
Following 1920 census, the house was not able to apportion itself because of a battle that broke out among the rural and urban factions. On June 18, 1929, the house passed the permanent apportionment, which capped house membership after 1910 census. The act created a procedure whereby house seat were automatically apportioned after every decennial census.
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KEYWORDS:
- apportionment
- reapportionment act
- 1910 census
- house membership