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[106th Congress House Rules Manual -- House Document No. 106-320]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office Online Database]
                         

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                              CONSTITUTION

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  We the People <<NOTE: Sec. 1. The preamble.>> of the United States, in 
Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic 
Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general 
Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our 
Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America.

  The First Continental <<NOTE: Sec. 2. Formation of the 
Constitution.>> Congress met in Philadelphia in September of 1774 and 
adopted the Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress, 
embodying rights and principles later to be incorporated into the 
Constitution of the United States. The Second Continental Congress 
adopted in November of 1777 the Articles of Confederation, which the 
States approved in July, 1778. Upon recommendation of the Continental 
Congress, a convention of State representatives met in May, 1787 to 
revise the Articles of Confederation and reported to the Continental 
Congress in September a new Constitution, which the Congress submitted 
to the States for ratification. Nine States, as required by the 
Constitution for its establishment, had ratified by June 21, 1788, and 
eleven States had ratified by July 26, 1788. The Continental Congress 
adopted a resolution on September 13, 1788, putting the new Constitution 
into effect; the First Congress of the United States convened on March 
4, 1789, and George Washington was inaugurated as the first President on 
April 30, 1789.



<DOC>
[106th Congress House Rules Manual -- House Document No. 106-320]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office Online Database]
                         

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                               ARTICLE I.

  Section 1. All <<NOTE: Sec. 3. Legislative powers vested in 
Congress.>> legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House 
of Representatives.

  The power to legislate includes the power to conduct inquiries and 
investigations. See Kilbourn v.  <<NOTE: Sec. 4. Power to 
investigate.>> Thompson, 103 U.S. 168 (1881); McGrain v. Daugherty, 273 
U.S. 135 (1927); Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178 (1957); 
Barenblatt v. United States, 360 U.S. 109 (1959). For the power of the 
House to punish for contempt in the course of investigations, see 
Sec. 293, infra.

<<NOTE: Sec. 5. Members chosen by the people of the States every second 
year.>>   Section 2. \1\ The House of Representatives shall be composed 
of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, 
* * *.

  This clause requires election by the people and State authority may 
not determine a tie by lot (I, 775).
  The phrase ``by the people of the several States'' means that as 
nearly as practicable one person's vote in a congressional election is 
to be worth as much as another's. Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 
(1964); Kirkpatrick v. Preisler, 385 U.S. 450 (1967). 2 U.S.C. 2a 
mandates apportionment of Representatives based upon population, and 2 
U.S.C. 2c requires the establishment by the States of single-Member 
congressional districts. For elections generally, see Deschler's 
Precedents, vol. 2, ch. 8.
  The term of a <<NOTE: Sec. 6. Term of a Congress.>> Congress, before 
the ratification of the 20th amendment to the Constitution, began on the 
4th of March of the odd numbered years and extended through two years. 
This resulted from the action of the Continental Congress on September 
13, 1788, in declaring, on authority conferred by the Federal 
Convention, ``the first Wednesday in March next'' to be ``the time for 
commencing proceedings under the said Constitution.'' This date was the 
4th of March, 1789. Soon after the first Congress assembled a joint 
committee determined that the terms of Representatives and Senators of 
the first class commenced on that day, and must necessarily terminate 
with the 3d of March, 1791 (I, 3). Under the 20th amendment to the 
Constitution the terms of Representatives and Senators begin on the 3d 
of January of the odd-numbered years, regardless of when Congress 
actually convenes. By a practice having the force of common law, the 
House meets at 12 m. when no other hour is fixed (I. 4, 210). In the 
later practice a

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resolution fixing the daily hour of meeting at 12 o'clock meridian or 
some other hour is agreed to at the beginning of each session.
  Prior to adoption of the 20th amendment, the legislative day of March 
3 extended to 12 m. on March 4 (V, 6694-6697) and, unless earlier 
adjourned, the Speaker could at that time declare the House adjourned 
sine die, without motion or vote, even to the point of suspending a roll 
call then in progress (V, 6715-6718).
  The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 (84 Stat. 1140) provides 
that unless Congress otherwise specifies the two Houses shall adjourn 
sine die not later than the last day in July. This requirement is not 
applicable, under the terms of that Act, where a state of war exists 
pursuant to a congressional declaration or where, in an odd-numbered 
(nonelection) year, the Congress has agreed to adjourn for the month 
preceding Labor Day. For more on this provision, see Sec. 1105, infra.

<<NOTE: Sec. 7. Electors of the House of Representatives.>> * * * and 
the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for 
Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

  The House, in the decision of an election case, has rejected votes 
cast by persons not naturalized citizens of the United States, although 
they were entitled to vote under the statutes of a State (I, 811); but 
where an act of Congress had provided that a certain class of persons 
should be deprived of citizenship, a question arose over the proposed 
rejection of their votes in a State wherein citizenship in the United 
States was not a qualification of the elector (I, 451). In an 
exceptional case the House rejected votes cast by persons lately in 
armed resistance to the Government, although by the law of the State 
they were qualified voters (I, 448); but later, the House declined to 
find persons disqualified as voters because they had formerly borne arms 
against the Government (II, 879).
  The power <<NOTE: Sec. 8. Decisions of the Court.>> of the States to 
set qualifications for electors is not unlimited, being subject to the 
15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th amendments, and to the equal protection 
clause of the United States Constitution. Carrington v. Rash, 380 U.S. 
89 (1965); Kramer v. Union Free School District, 395 U.S. 621 (1969).
  Congress has some power in setting qualifications for electors, as in 
protecting the right to vote and lowering the minimum age for electors 
in congressional elections. Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U.S. 641 (1966); 
Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U.S. 112 (1970).

<<NOTE: Sec. 9. Age as a qualification of the Representative.>>   \2\ No 
Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained
to the Age of twenty five Years, * * *.


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  A Member-elect not being of the required age, was not enrolled by the 
Clerk and he did not take the oath until he had reached the required age 
(I, 418).

<<NOTE: Sec. 10. Citizenship as a qualification of the Member.>> * * * 
and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, * * *.

  Henry Ellenbogen, Pa., had not been a citizen for seven years when 
elected to the 73d Congress, nor when the term commenced on March 4, 
1933. He was sworn at the beginning of the second session on January 3, 
1934, when a citizen for seven and one-half years (see H. Rept. 1431 and 
H. Res. 370, 73d Cong.). A native of South Carolina who had been abroad 
during the Revolution and on his return had not resided in the country 
seven years, was held to be qualified as a citizen (I, 420). A woman who 
forfeited her citizenship through marriage to a foreign subject and 
later resumed it through naturalization less than seven years prior to 
her election, was held to fulfill the constitutional requirement as to 
citizenship and entitled to a seat in the House (VI, 184). A Member who 
had long been a resident of the country, but who could not produce 
either the record of the court nor his final naturalization papers, was 
nevertheless retained in his seat by the House (I, 424).

<<NOTE: Sec. 11. Inhabitancy as a qualification of the Member.>> * * * 
and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which 
he shall be chosen.

  The meaning of the word ``inhabitant'' and its relation to citizenship 
has been discussed (I, 366, 434; VI, 174), and the House has held that a 
mere sojourner in a State was not qualified as an inhabitant (I, 369), 
but a contestant was found to be an actual inhabitant of the State 
although for sufficient reason his family resided in another State (II, 
1091). Residence abroad in the service of the Government does not 
destroy inhabitancy as understood under the Constitution (I, 433). One 
holding an office and residing with his family for a series of years in 
the District of Columbia exclusively was held disqualified to sit as a 
Member from the State of his citizenship (I, 434); and one who had his 
business and a residence in the District of Columbia and had no business 
or residence in Virginia was held ineligible to a seat from that State 
(I, 436). One who had a home in the District of Columbia, and had 
inhabited another home in Maryland a brief period before his election, 
but had never been a citizen of any other State, was held to be 
qualified (I, 432). Also a Member who had resided a portion of a year in 
the District of Columbia, but who had a home in the State of his 
citizenship and was actually living there at the time of the election, 
was held to be qualified (I, 435). In the Updike v. Ludlow case, 71st 
Congress, it was decided that residence in the District of Colum

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bia for years as a newspaper correspondent and maintenance there of 
church membership were not considered to outweigh payment of poll and 
income taxes, ownership of real estate, and a record for consistent 
voting in the district from which elected (VI, 55), and in the same case 
excuse from jury duty in the District of Columbia on a plea of 
citizenship in the State from which elected and exercise of incidental 
rights of such citizenship, were accepted as evidence of inhabitancy 
(VI, 55).
  Whether Congress <<NOTE: Sec. 12. Qualifications other than those 
specified by the Constitution.>> may by law establish qualifications 
other than those prescribed by the Constitution has been the subject of 
much discussion (I, 449, 451, 457, 458, 478); but in a case wherein a 
statute declared a Senator convicted of a certain offense ``forever 
thereafter incapable of holding any office of honor, trust, or profit 
under the Government of the United States,'' the Supreme Court expressed 
the opinion that the final judgment of conviction did not operate, ipso 
facto, to vacate the seat or compel the Senate to expel or regard the 
Senator as expelled by force alone of the judgment (II, 1282). Whether 
the House or Senate alone may set up qualifications other than those of 
the Constitution has also been a subject often discussed (I, 414, 415, 
443, 457, 458, 469, 481, 484). The Senate has always declined to act on 
the supposition that it had such a power (I, 443, 483), and during the 
stress of civil war the House of Representatives declined to exercise 
the power, even under circumstances of great provocation (I, 449, 465). 
But later, in one instance, the House excluded a Member-elect on the 
principal argument that it might itself prescribe a qualification not 
specified in the Constitution (I, 477). The matter was extensively 
debated in the 90th Congress in connection with the consideration of 
resolutions relating to the seating of Representative-elect Adam C. 
Powell of New York (H. Res. 1, Jan. 10, 1967, p. 14; H. Res. 278, Mar. 
1, 1967, p. 4997).
  The exclusion of Mr. Powell was the subject of litigation reaching the 
Supreme Court of the United States. In Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486 
(1969), the Court found that the power of Congress to judge the 
qualifications of its Members was limited to an examination of the 
express qualifications stated in the Constitution.
  It has been decided by the House and Senate that no State may add to 
the qualifications prescribed by the Constitution (I, 414-416, 632); and 
the Supreme Court so ruled in U.S. Term Limits, Inc., v. Thorton, 63 
U.S.L.W. 4413 (1995). There, the Court held that States may not 
``change, add to, or diminish'' constitutional qualifications of 
Members, striking down a State statute prohibiting three-term incumbents 
from appearing on the general election ballot. For qualifications 
generally, see Deschler's Precedents, vol. 2, ch. 7, secs. 9-14.
  For expulsion of seated Members, which requires a two-thirds vote 
rather than a majority vote, see article I, section 5, clause 2 
(Sec. 62, infra).

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  Both Houses of <<NOTE: Sec. 13. Minority candidate not seated when 
returned Member is disqualified.>> Congress have decided, when a Member-
elect is found to be disqualified, that the person receiving the next 
highest number of votes is not entitled to the seat (I, 323, 326, 450, 
463, 469; VI, 58, 59), even in a case wherein seasonable notice of the 
disqualification was given to the electors (I, 460). In the event of the 
death of a Member-elect, the candidate receiving the next highest number 
of votes is not entitled to the seat (VI, 152).

  \3\ [Representatives and direct <<NOTE: Sec. 14. The old provision for 
apportionment of Representatives and direct taxes.>> Taxes shall be 
apportioned among the several States which may be included within this 
Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined 
by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to 
Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three 
fifths of all other Persons.] * * *

  The part of this clause relating to the mode of apportionment of 
Representatives was changed after the Civil War by section 2 of the 14th 
amendment and as to taxes on incomes without apportionment, by the 16th 
amendment.

* * * The actual <<NOTE: Sec. 15. Census as a basis of 
apportionment.>> Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the 
first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every 
subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law 
direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every 
thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; 
and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire 
shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode- Island and 
Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey 
four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland

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six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia 
three.

  The census has been taken decennially since 1790, and, with the 
exception of 1920, was followed each time by reapportionment. In the 
First Congress the House had 65 Members; increased after each census, 
except that of 1840, until 435 was reached in 1913 (VI, 39, 40). The Act 
of June 18, 1929 (46 Stat. 26), as amended by the Act of November 15, 
1941 (55 Stat. 761), provides for reapportionment of the existing number 
(435) among the States following each new census (VI, 41-43; see 2 
U.S.C. 2a). Membership was temporarily increased to 436, then to 437, 

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