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The House of Representatives has been capped at 435 seats since 1929, while the population tripled. One representative now speaks for nearly 800,000 Americans. It’s time for a change.
Why, in a country of over 330 million people, do we have only 435 representatives to serve them? Watch Mr. Beat explain.
What the media is saying
New York Times | Washington Post | The Atlantic | TIME | Pew Research | The Hill | The Dispatch | NPR | USA Today
"The U.S. has one representative for every 747,000 Americans — the highest ratio in its history, and the highest among peer democracies."
— Pew Research Center
Self-government. Your voice. Tell Congress: Uncap the house
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Why 435?
Why does the house size matter?
George Washington's only intervention at the Constitutional Convention was a warning: don't let the ratio of representatives to citizens get too small.
Congress ignored that in 1929, freezing the House at 435 seats. The population has tripled since. Your rep now speaks for nearly 800,000 people — more than three times what it was when the cap was put in place.
The consequences are visible: easier gerrymandering, more expensive campaigns, and a Congress that feels further from ordinary people than ever.
FAQ
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Uncapping the House means repealing the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929. The act limited the number of representatives in the House to 435. “Uncapping” would remove that limit.
When the act was written, the population was about 100 million, and today it’s over 330 million. This has separated the people and their representatives.
As a result, America is now one of the least represented democracies in the world.
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Yes. But it would require modernization and reconfiguration.
As noted in an article in The Washington Post, Danielle Allen has explained that the current size of the House chamber reflects 20th-century choices, not constitutional limits. The chamber was last expanded in 1913, and the permanent cap of 435 members dates to 1929, when the U.S. population was less than one-third of today’s.
The United States Capitol has been repeatedly renovated and expanded over time, including the addition of office buildings and underground facilities. Options to accommodate a larger House include:
Reconfiguring seating layouts
Using electronic voting and updated chamber design
Modifying the House floor footprint
Conducting some proceedings through hybrid or remote systems
In short, yes, but with some reengineering.
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Item Gerrymandering is the result of political parties gaming for power, which is unlikely to be eliminated; however, uncapping the House would significantly reduce its impact. Smaller districts are harder to distort because it’s easier for the people to reach them.
When districts contain nearly 800,000 people, map-drawers can manipulate large populations with relatively few lines. Smaller districts mean:
More precise representation of communities
Less “packing and cracking” power per district
More competitive seats, especially in growing suburbs
Harder-to-sustain extreme district shapes
The larger the district, the more distortion a single line can create. By reducing district size, uncapping the House makes maps more granular and less powerful as a partisan weapon. Uncapping the House makes gerrymandering less structurally potent.
description
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The 2030 census is fast approaching, triggering the next congressional reapportionment. Congress must repeal the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 before that census cycle, otherwise the country simply locks in the same representation system for another decade.
At the same time, the country is approaching the 100-year anniversary of the 1929 Apportionment Act. This provides Americans with an opportunity to reassess whether that decision still serves a nation that has nearly tripled in population.
Moments like this—major census cycles and historic anniversaries—are when institutional reforms become politically possible. If the conversation does not happen now, the issue may be deferred for another ten years or more.
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No. Just a simple a simple bill.
We are a non-partisan movement — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents united by one belief: that Americans deserve a government that actually represents them.
Join the Coalition.
What the Experts are saying
No Cap Swag
As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of these United States of America, let us remember what makes America great: YOU. And your participation in self-government.
America runs on representation.
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The No Cap Team
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![A man with dark hair, glasses, a mustache, wearing a gray suit, a striped shirt, and a yellow tie, posing against a plain light background.]()
Walter Clapp
Founder - VP
Walter is an attorney, entrepreneur, and inventor. Walter first learned about our lack of Representation and the failed First Amendment while clerking for the U.S. Senate in his last year of law school. He believes, as did George Washington, that freedom of speech must be used to elect good and adequate representation in our House. -
![Young man with brown hair smiling, wearing a gray blazer and a collared shirt, in an outdoor setting with blurred background.]()
Landon Glover
Co-Founder
Landon is an entrepreneur and lawyer. Landon’s interest in the size of the House started as intellectual curiosity and quickly turned into a dedicated project when he started the @uncapthehouse Twitter (now X) and subreddit in 2020, which he still runs. Since then, the pages accumulated thousands of followers. He co-founded the No Cap Fund to take the effort to uncap the House to the next level and accomplish the stated goal of uncapping the House by 2029, the 100-year anniversary of the cap on the House.
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![A smiling man with glasses and a beard, wearing a black jacket, standing in front of a decorated background with lights and ornaments.]()
Jeff Mayhugh
President
Jeff Mayhugh is a Christian, husband, and father of five. After building a small business and a family, Jeff decided to dig into history. He discovered the problem of the capped House, and he decided to get involved, volunteering for local campaigns and running for office. He is a contributor in The Hill, Newsweek, and The Blaze. Follow Jeff on X @jmayhugh28.
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![Close-up of a smiling man with a beard, wearing a suit and tie, indoors with a decorative background.]()
Roger Scott
Treasurer – Board Member
Roger Scott has served for more than thirty years in various finance, accounting, and strategy leadership roles for some of the largest, most well-known firms on the planet, including AT&T and FedEx. Roger currently operates as a consulting accountant, serving as fractional CFO or Controller for client companies across the country. He has been married for 35 years and is proud to claim parentage of two adult children. -
![A young man with brown hair in a suit and tie smiling outdoors with greenery in the background.]()
Thomas Howes
Board Member
Thomas D. Howes is Editor-in-Chief of The Vital Center, founder of the Reagan Caucus and Reagan Caucus Action, and a lecturer in politics at Princeton University. He is co-authoring, with James M. Patterson, a book to be published by the Acton Institute titled Why Postliberalism Failed. He also has a nearly completed manuscript defending constitutional democracy from the perspective of natural law theory.
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![Man with glasses holding an American flag and a small plush toy of a historical figure, smiling against a neutral gray background.]()
Matt Beat
Board Member
Matthew Beat, also known as Mr. Beat, is a multifaceted creator from Kansas—a YouTuber, video producer, educator, and musician. With experience teaching a range of subjects from grades 7–12, Matt has expanded his classroom to a global audience through his YouTube channels Mr. Beat and The Beat Goes On, collectively gaining over 1 million subscribers and over 350 million views.
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