§ 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.