Innovating Congress
Through appropriations and regulations, the U.S. House of Representatives has helped shape global innovations in democracy, technology, and social reform. Over time, these developments have had substantial impacts across the world and have influenced the way the House operates.
Modernizing the House
Over the course of House history, the rules and precedents that govern debate and the passage of legislation have evolved dramatically.
About this record In December 1963, Judiciary Committee Chairman Emanuel Celler, frustrated by the dilatory tactics of the Rules Committee, used this discharge petition to attempt to force H.R. 7152, known as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to the House Floor for consideration.
Blog: Fighting the Filibuster
Today, filibustering—holding the floor to delay consideration of a measure—is almost exclusively associated with the United States Senate. In the modern House, on the other hand, the majority party controls what happens on the House Floor, and individual Members have little influence concerning the course of debate. Over the years, the House, which is more than four times the size of the Senate, has developed rules which strictly control who can speak and for how long. But during the early nineteenth century, when the number of people serving in the House was much smaller, debate in the chamber was virtually unlimited. As it happened, the framework of the legislative mechanism needed to stop these filibusters was already in the House Rules: the previous question.
Highlight: The Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929
The U.S. Constitution called for at least one Representative per state and that no more than one for every 30,000 persons. But the Founders were vague as to how large future Congresses should be and what method the states should use to reapportion the House after each federal Census. Apportionment had vexed Congress for much of its history as U.S. territories came into the national fold and the country’s population grew. On June 11, 1929, the House passed the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, fixing the number of Representatives at 435.
About this object The House’s rail line opened in 1965, connecting the Capitol with the new Rayburn House Office Building.
Blog: Who Controls the House? The Discharge Petition and Legislative Power in the New Deal Congress
The ability of Members to introduce a motion to discharge committees from further consideration of legislation existed intermittently over the course of House history. In 1910, the House overhauled its procedures to empower rank-and-file lawmakers and placed discharge petitions under the possession of the House Clerk. At its lowest threshold in the 72nd Congress (1931–1933), a discharge petition required only 145 signatures from Representatives to force legislation to the floor. The relative ease of completing a discharge petition proved to be “a millstone about the neck of the majority” according to Democratic Whip John McDuffie of Alabama, and the threshold was raised to 218 the following Congress, where it remains today.
Highlight: The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946
The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 was drafted by the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress and spearheaded by Senator Robert M. La Follette Jr. of Wisconsin and Representative Almer Monroney of Oklahoma. The legislation streamlined the sprawling, complex committee system and the cumbersome appropriations process. It also included a congressional pay raise, free education for House and Senate Pages, and the expansion of the Legislative Reference Service (later known as the Congressional Research Service).
Technological Innovation in the House
Beginning with the invention of the telegraph in 1844, innovation led to an information transformation in Congress. Technology has revolutionized the way the House conducted business and disseminated information from the halls of the House of Representatives to constituents in their districts.
About this object The House held its first electronic vote in January 1973, with voting stations like this one in various locations around the chamber.
Document: Bill for Automatic Vote Counting
Introduced by Representative Charles Bennett of Florida on June 21, 1949, H. Res. 261 was neither the first nor the last piece of legislation the Congressman authored to install an automatic counting and visual recording system in the House of Representatives.
Highlight: The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970
Proposed by the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress, the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 made House and Senate processes more transparent by making all committee hearings (excluding national security meetings and Appropriations Committee hearings) public, as well as by permitting televised broadcasts of many of these committee markups and investigations. The most extraordinary change to the House of Representatives was the addition of electronic voting to the House Chamber.
Exhibit: Electronic Voting
The House held its first electronic vote on January 23, 1973. Since 1973, electronic voting has dramatically reduced the amount of time it takes to record votes in the House and in the Committee of the Whole.
Oral History Interview: Ron Lasch
A former Republican Cloakroom manager, Ronald W. Lasch highlights the unanticipated changes that accompanied electronic voting.
Exhibit: The House and Television
Nearly a half-century elapsed from the invention of television to the broadcasting of House Floor proceedings. The first live television broadcast coverage of a congressional proceeding occurred on January 3, 1947, when cameras were allowed into the House Chamber to telecast the opening of the 80th Congress (1947–1949). Nevertheless, it would be another three decades before House proceedings were regularly broadcast on television.
Oral History Interview: Tina Tate
A veteran of the House Radio-TV Gallery, Tina Tate offers her perspective on how congressional proceedings were affected by being broadcast on television.
About this object Television cameras line the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives to provide broadcast coverage of regular floor debate and special events.
Exhibit: Email and the Internet in the House
In 1969, there were only three computers on the entire Capitol campus. Six years later, they were a common fixture in most congressional offices. Email was first used internally by the House in the early 1980s, and external email began in the mid-1990s, permitting the public to contact Member offices 24 hours a day. The mid-to late-1990s launch of congressional websites granted the public instant access to information which once required weeks or even months to obtain. Social networking and new wireless computer technologies made Members of Congress more accessible than ever before.
Blog: The Early History of Videoconferencing Technology in the House
On the morning of October 9, 1991—long before the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an era of Zoom calls and online meetings—George E. Brown of California, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, gaveled his committee to order in what appeared to be a science fiction theater.
Oral History Interview: Jennifer Wexton
In her oral history, former Virginia Representative Jennifer Wexton discusses using assistive technology to speak on the House Floor, a historic first.
Innovating the Congressional Campus
In 1789, the only office space available to Representatives was a desk on the House Floor. Over time, the congressional campus has expanded and changed to accommodate new membership and the realities of modern work in the House.
Exhibit: House Office Buildings
As the role of the House of Representatives grew over time, the Capitol campus expanded along with it. The three House Office Buildings—Cannon, Longworth, and Rayburn—constructed over the course of the twentieth century each uniquely reflect the challenges and changes faced in their eras.
About this object In 1965, Martha Wright Griffiths and Leonor Kretzer Sullivan tried out the equipment in a new exercise room, the first for women Members. Congresswomen later protested their exclusion from the primary Members’ gym, which was finally integrated in 1985.
Exhibit: The Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women’s Reading Room
The historic space reserved exclusively for Congresswomen, located off of Statuary Hall, is one of the oldest parts of the Capitol. Since 1962, the suite has belonged to the Congresswomen of the House.
Blog: Congress Works It Out at the Gym
In the 1800s, being a Member of Congress was a physically active profession. The Los Angeles Times explained that “oratory gave the legislator all the exercise he needed.” By the twentieth century, however, congressional oratory style had changed, and House Members did a lot more sitting. When the New House Office Building, now called the Longworth House Office Building, opened in 1933, it included a gym for Members.
Blog: Members Only
On the afternoon of February 6, 1967, Representatives Catherine May, Patsy Mink, and Charlotte Reid derailed Herb Botts’s day. Botts managed the men’s gym in the basement of the Rayburn House Office Building, but he never expected the three Congresswomen to show up for his 4:45 p.m. calisthenics class. After all, women Members of Congress had their own gym just steps away. The Members’ Gym did not integrate until nearly two decades later.
Innovating by Renovating
Many innovations have found their way into the U.S. Capitol over the years, bringing modern conveniences to Members and staff and providing further opportunities to share the history of the House with visitors.
Highlight: The Creation of National Statuary Hall
Against the backdrop of the Civil War, a group of Members grew increasingly concerned that the Old Hall of the House had become a useless storage area. In 1864, Vermont Representative Justin Morrill introduced a bill to transform the former House Chamber into an artistic showplace. The legislation authorized the President to invite each state to submit a maximum of two statues for display in the Capitol and appropriated $24,000 for renovations to the space that would become National Statuary Hall.
About this object The House Chamber’s ceiling required supports—visible on the right—because of the failing roof. While that repair was still in process, crews cleaned and refreshed the walls of the Visitor’s Gallery. The full renovation was completed two years later in 1950.
Blog: Ups and Downs in the Capitol
Elevators have soared in the Capitol since the late 1800s. The first lift was placed in the Senate wing in 1873, but the House side didn’t raise the question of an elevator until 1880. In short order, multiple elevators were installed around the Capitol and a strict etiquette emerged. Today, certain elevators across the Capitol campus are reserved for Members of Congress to ensure speedy access to their respective chambers for votes.
Blog: Ten Trumpets and a Flying Coffin
What did it take to be heard in the House of Representatives? Acoustics were notoriously bad in the House Chamber in the early twentieth century. Getting from “wait, what?” to “loud and clear” required three tries, ten trumpets, and a “flying coffin.”
Blog: Vent Elation
“No good legislation comes out of Washington after June.” Speaker of the House John Nance Garner spent 30 years in Congress, and he knew to get out of town ahead of the wilting summer weather. Washington in July and August is a desperately hot and muggy place. In 1928, however, “manufactured weather”—air conditioning—arrived like a low altitude cold front in the House of Representatives.
Highlight: The First Meeting of the House in Its Temporary Quarters in the Ways and Means Committee Room
On July 5, 1949, the House of Representatives called to order its first meeting in its temporary quarters in what is today the Longworth House Office Building. During the two-year project to replace the roof and remodel the House Chamber, Representatives vacated the Capitol and met in the large Ways and Means Committee room. The House returned to its renovated chamber for the opening of the 82nd Congress (1951–1953).