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

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

1. 1929

   Pub. L. 71–28 § 22 · 46 Stat. 21

   Enacted · 2 U.S.C. § 2a

   June 18, 1929, ch. 28, § 22, 46 Stat. 26

   Source evidence

   Code source credit
   June 18, 1929, ch. 28, § 22, 46 Stat. 26

   Enacted provision · exact public law section
   Sec. 22. (a) On the first day, or within one week thereafter, of the second regular session of the Seventy-first 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 fifteenth 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 made in each of the following manners: (1) By apportioning the then existing number of Representatives among the several States according to the respective numbers of the several States as ascertained under such census, by the method used in the last preceding apportionment, no State to receive less than one Member; (2) By apportioning the then existing number of Representatives among the several States according to the respective numbers of the several States as ascertained under such census, by the method known as the method of major fractions, no State to receive less than one Member; and (3) By apportioning the then existing number of Representatives among the several States according to the respective numbers of the several States as ascertained under such census, by the method known as the method of equal proportions, no State to receive less than one Member. (b) If the Congress to which the statement required by subdivision (a) of this section is transmitted, fails to enact a law appor-tioning Representatives among the several States, then each State shall be entitled, in the second succeeding Congress and in each Congress thereafter until the taking effect of a reapportionment under this Act or subsequent statute, to the number of Representatives shown in the statement based upon the method used in the last preceding Certificate thereof to State executives by the Clerk of the House. apportionment. It shall be the duty of the Clerk of the last House of Representatives forthwith 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 officer who, under section 32 or 33 R. S., secs. 32, 33, p. 6. U. S. C., p. 4. of the Revised Statutes, is charged with the preparation of the roll of Representatives-elect. (c) This section shall have no force and effect in respect of the Section not effective unless statement transmitted in prescribed time. Ante, p. 26. apportionment to be made under any decennial census unless the statement required by subdivision (a) of this section in respect of such census is transmitted to the Congress within the time prescribed in subdivision (a).

2. 1996

   House of Representatives Administrative Reform Technical Corrections Act

   Pub. L. 104–186 title II § 201 · 110 Stat. 1718

   Struck · 2 U.S.C. § 2a(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”

   Source evidence

   Code amendment note
   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”.

   Enacted provision · exact public law section
   SEC. 201. PROVISIONS RELATING TO ELECTION OF REPRESENTATIVES. The provisions of law relating to election of Representatives, as codified in chapter 1 of title 2, United States Code, are amended as follows: The third sentence of section 22(b) of the Act entitled “An Act to provide for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for apportionment of Representatives in Congress”, approved June 28, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a(b)), is amended by striking out the semicolon after “Representatives” the first place it appears and all that follows through the end of the sentence and inserting in lieu thereof a period.

2 of 2 references resolved to an enrolled provision