Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
United States House of Representatives
Summary
The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together, they comprise the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The House's composition was established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The House is composed of representatives who, pursuant to the Uniform Congressional District Act, sit in single member congressional districts allocated to each state on the basis of population as measured by the United States census, with each district having one representative, provided that each state is entitled to at least one. Since its inception in 1789, all representatives have been directly elected, although universal suffrage did not come to effect until after the passage of the 19th Amendment and the Civil Rights Movement. Since 1913, the number of voting representatives has been at 435 pursuant to the Apportionment Act of 1911. The Reapportionment Act of 1929 capped the size of the House at 435. However, the number was temporarily increased in 1959 until 1963 to 437 when Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the Union.
In addition, five non-voting delegates represent the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. A non-voting Resident Commissioner, serving a four-year term, represents the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. As of the 2020 census, the largest delegation was California, with 52 representatives. Six states have only one representative: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
The House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills; those that are also passed by the Senate are sent to the president for consideration. The House also has exclusive powers: it initiates all revenue bills, impeaches federal officers, and elects the president if no candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College.
The House meets in the south wing of the United States Capitol.
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (1)
CS-234: Technologies for democratic society
This course will offer students a broad but hands-on introduction to technologies of human self-organization.
Related lectures (19)
Limits and Operations on Limits
Covers limits, algebraic operations, and infinite limits with examples of functions' behavior near limit points.
Numerical Analysis: Algorithms and Concepts
Covers algorithms for mathematical problems, focusing on stability, precision, and critical result analysis.
Quantum Measurement Analysis
Explores quantum measurement analysis, including the Simon problem and geometric analogies.
Related publications (15)
Related concepts (103)
Minority leader
The minority leader in U.S. politics (as well as in some other countries utilizing the presidential system), is the floor leader of the second largest caucus in a legislative body. Given the two-party nature of the U.S. system, the minority leader is almost inevitably either a Republican or a Democrat. The position could be considered similar to that of the leader of the opposition in parliamentary systems. In bicameral legislatures, the counterpart to the minority leader in the lower house is the Speaker, and the majority leader is hence only the second-most senior member of the majority caucus.
Majority leader
In U.S. politics (as well as in some other countries utilizing the presidential system), the majority floor leader is a partisan position in a legislative body. In the federal Congress of the United States, the roles of the House Majority Leader and the Senate Majority Leader differ slightly. At the state level, the majority leader of a given state legislative chamber usually performs a similar role to that of their federal counterpart.
Quorum call
In legislatures, a quorum call is used to determine whether a quorum is present. Since attendance at debates is not mandatory in most legislatures, it is often the case that a quorum of members is not present while the debate is ongoing. A member wishing to delay proceedings (for example, to allow other members time to get to the chamber in order to join debate) may request that the presiding officer determine whether a quorum is present. If a quorum appears to be present, debate is allowed.