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

Summary

The President must send Congress, on the first day or within one week of the first regular session of the Eighty-second Congress and every fifth Congress after that, a statement listing each State’s population (excluding Native Americans who are not taxed) using the seventeenth and later decennial censuses, and showing how many Representatives each State would get under the method of equal proportions. No State may get fewer than one Representative. Those numbers apply in the Eighty-third Congress and in each Congress after that until a new reapportionment takes effect. Within 15 calendar days of receiving the President’s statement, the Clerk of the House must send each State’s governor a certificate of its number of Representatives; if the Clerk can’t do it, the Sergeant at Arms must do it. Until a State redraws its districts, its elections follow these rules: if the number of Representatives does not change, use the current districts (including any at-large seats); if the number increases, the new seat(s) are elected at-large until redistricting; if the number decreases, whether seats are elected from districts or at-large depends on how the State’s existing number of districts compares to the new number, with excess seats filled at-large as needed.