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§ 2a. —  Reapportionment of Representatives; time and manner; existing decennial census figures as basis; statement by President; duty of clerk.



[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 2USC2a]

 
                          TITLE 2--THE CONGRESS
 
           CHAPTER 1--ELECTION OF SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES
 
Sec. 2a. Reapportionment of Representatives; time and manner; 
        existing decennial census figures as basis; statement by 
        President; duty of clerk
        
    (a) On the first day, or within one week thereafter, of the first 
regular session of the Eighty-second Congress and of each fifth Congress 
thereafter, the President shall transmit to the Congress a statement 
showing the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not 
taxed, as ascertained under the seventeenth and each subsequent 
decennial census of the population, and the number of Representatives to 
which each State would be entitled under an apportionment of the then 
existing number of Representatives by the method known as the method of 
equal proportions, no State to receive less than one Member.
    (b) Each State shall be entitled, in the Eighty-third Congress and 
in each Congress thereafter until the taking effect of a reapportionment 
under this section or subsequent statute, to the number of 
Representatives shown in the statement required by subsection (a) of 
this section, no State to receive less than one Member. It shall be the 
duty of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, within fifteen 
calendar days after the receipt of such statement, to send to the 
executive of each State a certificate of the number of Representatives 
to which such State is entitled under this section. In case of a vacancy 
in the office of Clerk, or of his absence or inability to discharge this 
duty, then such duty shall devolve upon the Sergeant at Arms of the 
House of Representatives.
    (c) Until a State is redistricted in the manner provided by the law 
thereof after any apportionment, the Representatives to which such State 
is entitled under such apportionment shall be elected in the following 
manner: (1) If there is no change in the number of Representatives, they 
shall be elected from the districts then prescribed by the law of such 
State, and if any of them are elected from the State at large they shall 
continue to be so elected; (2) if there is an increase in the number of 
Representatives, such additional Representative or Representatives shall 
be elected from the State at large and the other Representatives from 
the districts then prescribed by the law of such State; (3) if there is 
a decrease in the number of Representatives but the number of districts 
in such State is equal to such decreased number of Representatives, they 
shall be elected from the districts then prescribed by the law of such 
State; (4) if there is a decrease in the number of Representatives but 
the number of districts in such State is less than such number of 
Representatives, the number of Representatives by which such number of 
districts is exceeded shall be elected from the State at large and the 
other Representatives from the districts then prescribed by the law of 
such State; or (5) if there is a decrease in the number of 
Representatives and the number of districts in such State exceeds such 
decreased number of Representatives, they shall be elected from the 
State at large.

(June 18, 1929, ch. 28, Sec. 22, 46 Stat. 26; Apr. 25, 1940, ch. 152, 54 
Stat. 162; Nov. 15, 1941, ch. 470, Sec. 1, 55 Stat. 761; Pub. L. 104-
186, title II, Sec. 201, Aug. 20, 1996, 110 Stat. 1724.)


                               Amendments

    1996--Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 104-186 struck out at end ``; and in case 
of vacancies in the offices of both the Clerk and the Sergeant at Arms, 
or the absence or inability of both to act, such duty shall devolve upon 
the Doorkeeper of the House of Representatives''.
    1941--Act Nov. 15, 1941, provided for reapportionment based on 
seventeenth and subsequent decennial censuses.
    1940--Act Apr. 25, 1940, provided for reapportionment based on 
sixteenth decennial census.


                  Termination of Reporting Requirements

    For termination, effective May 15, 2000, of provisions of law 
requiring submittal to Congress of any annual, semiannual, or other 
regular periodic report listed in House Document No. 103-7 (in which the 
report required by subsec. (a) of this section is listed on page 17), 
see section 3003 of Pub. L. 104-66, as amended, set out as a note under 
section 1113 of Title 31, Money and Finance.


                        Constitutional Provisions

    Apportionment of Representatives among the several States, see 
Const. Art. I, Sec. 2, cl. 3, and Amend. XIV, Sec. 2.


                    Temporary Increase in Membership

    Representation of States of Alaska and Hawaii in House of 
Representatives as not affecting basis of apportionment established by 
this section, see section 9 of Pub. L. 85-508, July 7, 1958, 72 Stat. 
339, set out as a note preceding section 21 of Title 48, Territories and 
Insular Possessions, and section 8 of Pub. L. 86-3, Mar. 18, 1959, 73 
Stat. 4, set out as a note preceding section 491 of Title 48.

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 2b, 2c of this title.



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