Full House

With the 1960 census wrapped up, the House of Representatives faces the painful duty of reapportioning its 435 seats.* Sixteen states stand to lose 21 seats to more populous areas, and pressure grows for Congress to take the easy way out by enlarging the House. Sixteen House-expansion bills, written mostly by jeopardized members, have already been introduced. Support is building for the bill sponsored by Kentucky's Frank Chelf, a measure that would add 34 new seats, saving 17 of the threatened Congressmen.

Speaker Sam Rayburn has long opposed any additional seats, feeling that the House is big enough, would become cumbersome and unmanageable if it got any bigger. But with pressure from many an old friend who might lose a seat, Mister Sam is wavering. He asked Oklahoma's Carl Albert, the Democratic whip, to make a quiet investigation and some recommendations. Then Rayburn let it be known that for the time being he would take a neutralist position. He still has misgivings, believes that the Chelf bill might open the door to further growing pains. "First thing you know," he grumped to a friend, "you'll have 600 members"-- which to Mister Sam and nearly everybody but a doomed Congressman is an intolerable and preposterous prospect.

* The number was fixed by statute in 1911 but temporarily expanded to 437 (until 1963) to accommodate the new states of Hawaii and Alaska.

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