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The On the Hill: Breaking Down DC podcast is a collection of sharing more about what’s happening in DC without the bias, ways for you to get involved with the US government, and interviews with friends, colleagues who can help pull back the proverbial curtain of Washington, DC. Katherine Getty, host of the OTH podcast, is a 10-year Washingtonian who lives and breathes politics.
Katherine Getty 0:01
Hi, and welcome to the on the Hill podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty. Each Thursday, I'll peel back the curtain of what happens in Washington, from breaking down current events without bias, to interviews with fellow political nerds, and even and maybe most importantly, ways for you to get involved with our US government. Welcome back to another episode of The on the Hill podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty. When I first moved to DC, I interned for a member of Congress. And with even 11 years having passed, which is very hard to believe, and brought back to the hustle and bustle of the raucous House of Representatives, there is a sense of action, sorry, US Senate, that a hater shade your deliberate and we appreciate that or should appreciate that as Americans, but in the house for better for worse, there's constantly new faces new ideas, there's something really special about it. And that was intentional by the founders. So both in an effort to set the stage for future conversations, today, I'm going to be focused on the House of Representatives. This episode is going to leave you with a few things into two buckets. First, the definition of what the House of Representatives are, what's the basis? What's, why was it created at all and some fun, interesting facts along the way. And second, and importantly, I think, I'm going to give you the context, the history of the House of Representatives, basically snapshots of how the body of the House of Representatives have developed over our American history. So first, let's define what the House of Representatives is does was intended to do. So size and composition. So each state is guaranteed at least one member of the House of Representatives. And that allocation of how many representatives from each state is determined every 10 years based on census. So say a population and ex state increases likely over a 10 year period, they will get a new member, but maybe the population in another state has decreased, they may lose a member, but they can never not have, they have to at least have one that's kind of the foundation, House members are elected for two year terms from districts that are approximately equal population. And one thing I want to highlight and that is you know, as you hear it, okay, equal population that makes a ton of sense. equal population does not mean though, equal geographic distance. So you'll have members there are many members from New York City say, and they split the city in different boroughs. Maybe I am not totally familiar with how the lines break down in New York City, but they could have a part of New York City, that is very populous, obviously. And there could be at the same time a member that represents an entire state. So Alaska, Delaware, Wyoming come to mind. And I want to take a second to highlight that because I think it it shows that while each house member is one, you know, there's a basis of one, they can have very different, different constituencies. And I think that's an important highlight. The constitutional requirement for eligibility to be a member of the House Representatives is you know, the tickets arrived or how tall you have to be to get on the ride, you have to be at least 25 years old. You have to be have US citizenship for at least seven years. And you have to have residency from the state which the member is elected. This is not to mean, though, another fun fact that you have to live in the exact district. So a good example, as a member could live right outside the lines of a district or maybe they used to live inside the district and the lines changed. And they could run and represent the people in the district that's next to them. I think that's a really interesting fact. Because I think sometimes we think, Oh, they have to live where they represent they have to be in the state for the House of Representatives, but they do not have to be in the exact district. I think that's super, super interesting. A couple key powers that the Constitution and founders laid out one origins of the revenue bells. So according to the Constitution, all bills that raise revenue must originate from the House of Representatives. This provision underscores the house is authority when it comes to fiscal matters now, take everything you see in the news aside, but I think it's an interesting thing to highlight that that is an underpinning of the House of Representatives. Another thing and something that has been used more frequently in the last I mean 10 years less than 10 years, is impeachment power. So the house has The sole power of impeachment where the process of charging a government official with high crimes and misdemeanors starts in the house. And if the House passes an impeachment, the case is then tried in the Senate. And don't worry, I'm going to do an entire episode on the Senate in a similar fashion next week. But I think that's an interesting feature too, is that impeachment has to start in the house. A couple other key pieces I want to highlight is one, the committee system. The house relies heavily on the committee system, where members specialize in specific policy areas. So you know, if you've listened to the your good news podcast, and you're migrating over to this new on the Hill podcast, on the your good news podcast, we've talked about committees before particular committees, maybe there's a certain bill coming up, that committee system is really important, because it they're responsible for reviewing and amending legislation before it reaches the floor. You've heard in the news a lot about going back to regular order as a focus of House Republicans or ensuring the committee system is empowered or any number of those kind of comments. That is because the committee system is so important to the House of Representatives. I will say some, some really influential committees within the house. And this is, you know, to my friends who work on the hill, this is not a you know, I'm not trying to do a power rankings of committees. But I think things that are important is the Appropriations Committee. The appropriations committee allocates funds. So we've talked about how Congress has the power of the purse, the Appropriations Committee, does a lot of good work of understanding what programs are working, how they're, you know, where they need to be funded at. They do not create the programs. That's authorizers. So those are different committees. But these appropriators have the power of the purse, and they're really important. And I I know that I've maybe shared before, but something that I found really interesting is that the appropriations process as intended from the 70s, when they you know, redid it has worked four times. So this call to going back to us regular order, again, you know, the appropriations process is very complicated, but has not worked maybe efficiently. But they are very, very important to how we spend how Congressman's tax dollars, and I find it to be rather fascinating, because as a taxpayer, I'm like, where are you spend the money? Not that it's, you know, my taxes are that high. But I digress. Another important committee is the Ways and Means so they oversee Tax and Trade or energy and commerce, they have all health, they have a lot of health jurisdiction Ways and Means has some as well, but little love for the Energy and Commerce Committee. I think it's dubbed the oldest committee in Congress, and then the Judiciary Committee. So they deal with legal matters. I think we've seen them more in the last again, you know, judiciary committee, sometimes, if you see on TV, those really contentious hearings. That is, this is, you know, again, not trying to call judiciary, but that's typically where some of those really heated debates come out. So we have gone through kind of, what is the House of Representatives? Where did it start? How did it start? You know, it's really based on the Constitution, it has the power to originate revenue bills, has the power to start impeachment.
And if impeachment passes, it goes to the Senate, all members are present, generally the same size population. But that does not mean that they have geographically the same size districts, there is at least one member from every house. And there's, you know, so much more I could share with these are kind of some of the highlights I thought would be really helpful. When you see the House of Representatives have a peek behind the curtain. So we've gone through kind of the context, let's go through the history, let's take some snapshots of some how the body has developed over the last, you know, all of our American history. So, you know, we haven't actually talked about how many members of the House are and I think this was kind of a mash up of both history and context. So I put it into the history section. But the House of Representatives, interestingly enough, was originally comprised of 59 members. I do not know why 59 Members, I tried to figure it out. I'm sure there was some sort of rationale behind it. The number rose after the ratification of the Constitution by North Carolina and Rhode Island and 7090. And then, so that had about 65 representatives. By 1912. Membership had reached 435 Do Two additional representatives were added temporarily after the admission of Alaska and Hawaii states in 1959. But the next legislative apportionment membership returned to 435. And then that number 435, was authorized by law in 1941. So it kind of grew slowly and then very fast. But while the history of how many representatives is is important, I think it'd be wise to kind of walk through the history. So we can highlight key periods, founding period. So this is 1789, right after the revolution to 1800. And it was established, the house was established as two chambers of Congress by the US Constitution. And it was ratified in 8817 88. Very different than 1988. The first Congress was convened in New York City, and the House held its first session on April 1, it is not a, you know, was not a joke. It was on April 1 1789. And James Madison played a significant role in drafting the Constitution. He is, by far my favorite president, and I will go into that maybe I'm Presidents Day as presidency is coming up. And he was really instrumental and the provisions related to the house, the early years, I would say this is like 1800 to 1850. I think it matches where we were as a country as well, as the nation expanded, the house had to the number of representatives increase as each new state was admitted to the Union. And the house played a crucial role in several important events in this period, including the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which addressed the issue of slavery in New Territories. Then, as we get towards closer to the, you know, pre Civil War 1850 through the Civil War to 1865. The house was really a battleground of ideas of slavery and tensions within our great union. And I think the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. And then the subsequent secession from the Union from southern states, just intensified the debates within the house. And the house, like I said, at the beginning is a raucous body. It is meant to be were the it's representative of the people. It was in the Constitution, the only body that was deemed to be kind of the popular vote, the Senate, which we will talk about next week, even more, the Senate was actually created, and the states would decide who would be those senators, not the people that changed along the way. Think it was a 17th amendment will clarify next week. But you know, you see these developments in the house is really playing a central role in those kinds of conversations. As we get towards reconstruction, so 1865 to 1877, the house was really important in passing some of the legislation in the reconstruction era. So amendments that were aimed are bills that were aimed at rebuilding the south and ensuring civil rights for African Americans. It's the 13th 14th 15th amendments of the Constitution were ratified during this time period of 1865 to 1877. So, again, you see the house playing a really important role of pushing us forward to be a better society, a better nation, as we kind of deal with kind of post reconstruction, first and second world war so that 19 119 45, the definitely the house continued to, you know, evolve, you saw reforms of the direct election of senators, which I reference, you saw women's suffrage, you know, and you, you saw the house playing a really key role in approving the involvement of the US within World War One and World War Two, as we get from 1945, to present, which is, I know quite a leap, the post World War Two, America, and specifically the House of Representatives saw issues like civil rights, you know, the great society that was founded by Lyndon B. Johnson. So a lot of those, you know, social safety net programs, the Vietnam War, and you see the house playing more of a role in shaping domestic policy over those years foreign policy over those years. And I think that the political dynamics that we've seen from 45 to present, which have been vast and I think people in 1945 will be shocked to see how we debate and 2024 but the house has always been at the center of it. And I think that's important to say, you know, I would be remiss if I You know, no without saying kind of some of my personal I, absolutely I know I've already said this love the house, I think there's something really special about the house, if you've never toured, if you've only come to the Capitol and having toured the house buildings or the Senate buildings where work gets done, it's really inspiring, you know, on a daily basis, my job is to go educate members of Congress and staff, and it is never lost on me of the history that the, you know, the halls of Congress have the if the walls could talk kind of, I feel incredibly lucky that I'm able to share, you know, my colleagues stories on the hill, because oftentimes, we don't always get the opportunity to come up to the hill and share our own opinion. But that's how our great, you know, Constitutional Republic was founded upon is that we would have that ability to share our opinions with lawmakers as they're making decisions. And I think the House is so important in that process. And I hope that this has helped you kind of level set of what is the House of Representatives, some interesting fun facts, some history along the way. And I hope that this provides you as we go into new conversations, maybe about committees, maybe about impeachment, whatever, it may be a really strong foundation. And as always, you know, there are amazing resources on the internet that you can research and find more information on. I utilize good home britannica.com Shout out to those books from the 90s there is no website really interesting. But I think just taking some time to have a better understanding my hope is always that I'm providing with providing for you information that gives you a little bit more to when you have that conversation with maybe someone who doesn't agree with you. You're both coming from the same vantage point because hopefully both people have listened to the the on the hell podcast. But as always, thank you so much for joining me for another episode. I truly, truly love doing these episodes. I think it's so important that there is an unbiased kind of Schoolhouse Rock to help us and I am grateful you joined this week. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram. My handle is at Katherine Getty. The podcast handle is on the Hill DC podcast. So as always, if there's ever anything you want to hear more about or you have feedback, please reach out to me and tune in next week to another episode of On the hill.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai