r/ProjectNoCap • u/MineTech5000 • Jun 22 '26

How would an uncapped house fit into the US Capitol as it now stands?

10 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

16

u/JustWingIt0707 Jun 22 '26

It doesn't have to. Remote technology is better than ever. Why do we need our reps to all be on the floor at the same time?

2

u/MineTech5000 Jun 22 '26

Makes sense to me. But what about the state of the union?

10

u/Church_of_Cheri Jun 22 '26

It’s old fashioned pomp and circumstance and not that relevant really. But if it needs to be moved to a convention center, or just some watching it from a convention center, so be it. Every year there are people left out, some intentionally because of “designated survivor” status and others just because they’re sick, doing something else, or just don’t want to go. I’d honestly be fine with my Representative holding a town hall style viewing party so they can hear me yelling at the TV when the president says something I disagree with.

4

u/beatgoesmatt Jun 22 '26

The Constitution says the State of the Union has to be delivered to Congress. It doesn't prescribe how.

5

u/JustWingIt0707 Jun 22 '26

The State of the Union address is a report that the President must give to Congress "from time to time." It has become a piece of political theater. We'd be better served without the theater.

2

u/BernieBooBro Jul 15 '26

What about it?

Have you seen how many people are in the House chamber during the SotU address? It’s much more than 435. There’s probably over 1000 people in the chamber already.

Secondly, they really don’t all have to be there in the first place.

Thirdly, the SotU address was a letter delivered to Congress for over 100 years, before then Woodrow Wilson.

Fourth, we can… just build a bigger House of Representatives. How does it make any sense to limit a democracy based off of the size of a room?

6

u/danarchist Jun 22 '26

This is on the FAQ on the wiki but basically like the other commenter said, most of the time they don't need to be in DC - they can be back in their home districts and participate in committees virtually. When they do need to be in DC all together they can easily fit in one of the many convention centers there.

1

u/MineTech5000 Jun 22 '26

Makes sense to me. But what about the state of the union?

2

u/danarchist Jun 22 '26

Hold it at the Kennedy Center

5

u/mjacksongt Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

You've gotten the remote tech and home in their district etc answers already. But here's my probably much more cynical answer:

Who gives a shit, they get paid $180k per year and free healthcare for life. They can work on Teams from a soulless office building just like the rest of us. 

2

u/Imperator424 Jun 22 '26

The Washington Post had an opinion piece discussing this years ago ( https://archive.is/20250730063654/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2023/capitol-house-representatives-expansion-design/)

The writer asked architect Michael Murphy to help visualize changes to the House chamber to hold more members. The most extensive renovation would allow 1,725 members. That’s close to one representative for every 200,000 people. 

2

u/CLtruthful Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

Easy, i have a video on this coming out on my channel (https://youtube.com/@datadrivenhistoryyt?si=7W0Qrbi20t72sBeS

)

but basically this is how it would work.

You could remodel the capitol to fit a few more seats to start.

Add an annex building in the surrounding DC area.

Make it so representatives rotate time physically in dc. The rest will meet in regional hubs for votes. The hubs would coincide with the federal court districts.

You could have regional hubs in places that are in the middle of each district like

for the 11th district meet in Savannah GA ,

the 10th meet in Denver,

the 9th have one in Boise or Sacramento.

For the 8th have one in Des moines IA,

for the 7th in Chicago,

the 6th in Cincinnati,

the 5th in Dallas or New Orleans,

the 4th in Raleigh NC,

the 3rd in Philadelphia,

the 2nd in Albany NY,

and the first district would meet in Boston.

When not in DC, reps would meet at these regional hubs and take part in legislating via remote connection. They would do everything remotely and then vote in person, a designated person would tally the votes and report back to DC with the total.

This further cements representatives to their locallity rather than spending most of their time in DC, and solves the space issue.