This letter was sent to Representative Pramila Jayapal on 2/13/2023 via https://jayapal.house.gov/contact/email. You may add your name by filling out the form. If I get a response from Rep. Jayapal I will share it with all signatories in an email.

To Congressmember Jayapal,

My name is Andre and I have been one of your constituents since you were first elected in 2016. I’m a voter in the Greenlake neighborhood.

I believe you’re a supporter of grassroots, representative, small d democracy and are aware of the many ways in which our country’s democracy is weak and under constant attack. While yes, we must defend our institutions, those institutions still have many design-flaws that lead to inequity and disenfranchisement.

One such way this happens in the House of Representatives is in the cap on the maximum number of congressmembers that may be elected to it, which has been capped at 435 since the passage of the Apportionment Act of 1911* (the cap was hit two years later in 1913). This creates a number of injustices beginning with a disproportionate House in which some constituents have more representation than others. For instance, in Rhode Island there are just over 525,000 constituents per Rep., but in Washington we have as many as 675,000, and states like Delaware and Montana can have over 900,000 constituents per Rep. This is not equal representation. Additionally, having a cap means that even as our population grows, states are pitted against one another for political power and influence — any state receiving an additional rep must come at the cost of another state which loses one. This creates unnecessary political division.

Meanwhile, in other countries including Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, their lower houses all have over 500 members despite populations that are less than one third of the US population. Each rep in those countries can focus on representing a constituency of closer to 100,000 rather than the over half a million people that every member of the US House currently represents.

I ask that you join Representatives Blumenauer (D-OR-03), Casten (D-IL-06), and Swallwell (D-CA-14) in cosponsoring H.R.622, a bill which would increase the number of members in the House of Representatives so we may build a democracy that is equitably of by and for the people.

Thank you for your time and I am looking forward to learning more about your position on this issue. I request a response that includes a copy of my original message.

Solidarity,
Andre Stackhouse

Sources:

• https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/622/cosponsors
• https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-house-got-stuck-at-435-seats
• https://www.thegreenpapers.com/Census10/FedRep.phtml?sort=Hous#table
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legislatures_by_number_of_members
  

*Correction - Additional research has revealed that I was mistaken - the House was not officially capped at 435 members until the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, though it used the 1910 census to calculate its cap. Hence, the House cap was set to the 435 members, which was the number of members it had been set at since 1913.