SECTION V: ADVOCATES FOR SIZING UP THE HOUSE
There are a number of groups and institutions that are recommending an increase in the House. But there is no organized national movement to do so. Most of those advocating also list several other recommendations for improving governance.
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PROJECT 1305 has no other causes except Sizing Up the House. That's it.
Yes or No. Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down.
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(PLEASE NOTE: As of March 4, 2025, none of the listed organizations are aware of PROJECT 1305, nor has any endorsed the project. Any partners will be listed on the Partner page - as soon as one jumps on board.)
List of organizations/people:
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American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AMACAD) – Enlarging the House
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/initiative/enlarging-house-representatives
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Fair Vote: Why 435? How We Can Change the Size of the House
https://fairvote.org/how_we_can_change_the_size_of_the_house_of_representatives/
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​Thirty-Thousand: Return the House of Representatives to the People
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Real Clear Politics: It’s Time to Increase the Size of the House of Representatives
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Fix the System https://www.fixthesystem.org/news-and-updates
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Equal Citizens. Larry Lessig. https://www.deliberations.us/fair-representation
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The Harvard Political Review: It’s Time For the People’s House to Bulk Up
https://theharvardpoliticalreview.com/expand-house-representative-democracy/
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The Hill: Should We Expand the House of Representatives? Our Founder’s Thought So
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TIME: How to Fix the House of Representatives in One Easy, Radical Step
https://time.com/5423623/house-representatives-number-seats/
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Democracy Docket: When it Comes to the House- Bigger Might be Better
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/when-it-comes-to-the-house-bigger-might-be-better/
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Fordham University - The School of Law - Why the House of Representatives Must Be Expanded and How Today's Congress Can Make It Happen
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3680804
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The Center for Politics: It’s Time To Increase The Size of the House
https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/its-time-to-increase-the-size-of-the-house/
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​Danielle Allen - Harvard Professor and Director of Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics
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​U.S. Representative Sean Casten (D-Illinois) - introduced legislation to Size Up the House
on January 31, 2023:
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U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) - introduced legislation to Size Up the House
on January 30, 2023:
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Heritage Foundation PROJECT 2025
While the Heritage Foundation doesn’t call for changing the size of the House, it makes probably one of the strongest cases as to why we have to:
The PROJECT 2025 report:
On page 6 & 7 of the report it makes the case for ‘We the People’ to have much more oversight of our federal budget by describing our broken budget and spending process.
Per the report: ‘Consider the federal budget. Under current law, Congress is required to pass a budget—and 12 issue-specific spending bills comporting with it—every single year. The last time Congress did so was in 1996. Congress no longer meaningfully budgets, authorizes, or categorizes spending
Instead, party leaders negotiate one multitrillion-dollar spending bill—several
thousand pages long—and then vote on it before anyone, literally, has had a chance
to read it. Debate time is restricted. Amendments are prohibited. And all of this
is backed up against a midnight deadline when the previous “omnibus” spending
bill will run out and the federal government “shuts down.”
This process is not designed to empower 330 million American citizens and
their elected representatives, but rather to empower the party elites secretly negotiating
without any public scrutiny or oversight.
In the end, congressional leaders’ behavior and incentives here are no different
from those of global elites insulating policy decisions—over the climate, trade,
public health, you name it—from the sovereignty of national electorates. Public
scrutiny and democratic accountability make life harder for policymakers—so they
skirt it. It’s not dysfunction; it’s corruption…
So today in Washington, most policy is no longer set by Congress
at all, but by the Administrative State. Given the choice between being powerful but
vulnerable or irrelevant but famous, most Members of Congress have chosen the latter.
Congress passes intentionally vague laws that delegate decision-making over
a given issue to a federal agency. That agency’s bureaucrats—not just unelected
but seemingly un-fireable—then leap at the chance to fill the vacuum created by
Congress’s preening cowardice. The federal government is growing larger and less
constitutionally accountable—even to the President—every year.’
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Marquette University - Is It Time to Expand the Size of Congress?
https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2013/08/is-it-time-to-expand-the-size-of-congress/
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For an in depth understanding of this issue AMACAD has an eight-part series:
AMACAD links:
Sec 1: Introduction:
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/enlarging-the-house/section/1
Sec 2: How we got to 435
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/enlarging-the-house/section/2
Section 3: The House and Representative Democracy
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/enlarging-the-house/section/3
Section 4: Our Proposal for House Expansion
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/enlarging-the-house/section/4
Section 5: Alternative Proposals for House Enlargement
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/enlarging-the-house/section/5
Section 6: Impact of House Expansion on the Partisan Control of Congress and the Electoral College
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/enlarging-the-house/section/6
Section 7: International Comparisons
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/enlarging-the-house/section/7
Section 8: other reforms to Pair With Enlarging the House
https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/enlarging-the-house/section/8