Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the Mountain region of the United States.
Wyoming Rule
The "Wyoming Rule" is a proposal to increase the size (see w:United States congressional apportionment) of the United States House of Representatives so that the standard representative-to-population ratio would be that of the smallest state, which is currently Wyoming.[1][2][3] Under Article One of the United States Constitution (see w:Article One of the United States Constitution), each state is guaranteed at least one representative. If the disparity between the population of the most and least populous states continues to grow, the disproportionality of the U.S. House of Representatives will continue to increase unless the body, whose size has been fixed at 435 since 1929 (except for a brief period from 1959 to 1963), is expanded.
A total of 547 seats would have been required to implement the Wyoming Rule based on the 2010 United States Census results (see w:2010 United States Census ) . However, the decade leading up to the 2020 United States Census saw Wyoming's population increase at a lower rate than that of the rest of the United States; as a result, the required House size to implement the Wyoming Rule will increase to 573. Under the Wyoming Rule, California would gain the most seats with seventeen more members than it will have after the next reapportionment.
While expanding the House would reduce some disparities in district size, it would not necessarily result in the smallest and largest districts being proportionally closer. After the 1990 United States Census and with a House size of 435, the largest district (Montana's at-large congressional district) had 799,065 residents, 76.2% larger than the smallest district (Wyoming's at-large congressional district) with 453,588 residents. The Wyoming Rule would have given a House size of 545 in 1990 if the former method of seat apportionment had been used. With that size, the largest district (North Dakota's at-large congressional district) would have had 638,800 residents, 91.8% larger than the smallest districts (Delaware's two districts) at approximately 333,084 residents each, due to Delaware (see Delaware's at-large congressional district) having enough population to be split in two but North Dakota falling just on the other side of the threshold.
Advocacy
- main article: Advocacy/United States/Mountain#Wyoming
- ↑ Taylor, Steven L. (December 14, 2010). "Representation in the House: The Wyoming Rule". Outside the Beltway.
- ↑ Shugart, Matthew Søberg (July 1, 2014). "Economix: Expand the US House". Fruits and Votes.
- ↑ "Increase the size of the House via the 'Wyoming Rule'". 2005-01-25.