Amendment XXVII
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amendment, would have altered Article I, Section 2 by tying the size of
the House of Representatives to increases in population. The amendment
provided that there should be one Representative for every 30,000 people
until the size of the House reached 100 members, after which there would
be one Representative for every 40,000 people until the House had 200
members. Congress would then set a new ratio that allowed for no more
than one representative for every 50,000 people.
The scheme was hardly realistic, however, and grossly underestimated
the future growth of the nation. The population of the United States at this
writing, at the turn of the century, is more than 250 million people. Had
this amendment been approved, it would be necessary to increase the
membership of the House of Representatives from 435 (as currently set
by statute) to 5,000 members! Such a large assembly obviously could not
function as a legislative body. Fortunately, the proposed Reapportionment Amendment was ratified by only ten States and thus failed to be
approved by the necessary three-fourths of the States, as provided by Article V of the Constitution.
The second proposed amendment, sometimes referred to as ‘‘the Congressional Pay,’’ ‘‘Pay Raise,’’ ‘‘Compensation,’’ or ‘‘Madison’’ Amendment, stipulated that no law changing the compensation of members of
the House of Representatives and Senate could go into effect until after
an election to the House had taken place. The purpose of this amendment was to force Representatives to go before the voters, a