Congressional Apportionment Amendment

The Congressional Apportionment Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution, one of twelve articles of amendment to the United States Constitution approved by the 1st Congress on September 25, 1789 and sent to the legislatures of the several states for ratification. It is the only one of the twelve proposed amendments that is still technically pending ratification.

The proposed text is:

“  |  After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.  |  ”

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In the 2010 census, there were 308,745,538 people in the United States,[1] which would have set the current size of the House of Representatives at 6,174 members. The amendment would have been a part of the Bill of Rights but for a vote by the Delaware General Assembly on January 28, 1790, to ratify the other eleven amendments in the Bill of Rights while rejecting this one.

On April 15, 2015, a new campaign began to push this amendment toward ratification. But this group ignores a critical flaw in the text. The last word more ought to read less, as it did before the 1789 House changed it. That would allow the same effect as we have today.[2]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau Announces 2010 Census Population Counts – Apportionment Counts Delivered to President. United States Census Bureau (December 21, 2010). Archived from the original on December 24, 2010. Retrieved on January 9, 2011.
2. ↑ Packing the House? - Conservative News and Views. Conservative News and Views (April 16, 2015). Retrieved on April 16, 2015.