House of Representatives

Lower chamber of the US Congress, with 435 members elected at regular two-year intervals, every even year, in November. States are represented in proportion to their population. The Speaker of the House is the majority party's leader.

All spending bills must, in accordance with Section 7 of Article 1 of the constitution, originate in the House of Representatives, thus making its financial committees particularly influential bodies. Once bills are passed in the House, they are sent to the Senate for consideration. The House also has sole powers of instigating impeachment proceedings, and elects the president (as it did in 1800 and 1824) if there is no majority in the electoral college. Members of the House must reside in the roughly equal-sized constituencies they represent.

The House started with fewer than 70 members, but grew as new states joined the Union and the US population increased. Since 1941 the number of members has been fixed at 435.