<P> The mandate for distributing seats in the United States House of Representatives among the various states according to the most recent decennial census is found in Article One, Section 2, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution . It requires representation in the House based on population size, in particular only counting three - fifths of the slave population until the Fourteenth Amendmen t in 1868 . The first federal law governing the size of the House and the method of allotting representatives, the Apportionment Act of 1792, was signed into law by George Washington in April 1792 . It set the number of members of the House at 105 (effective March 4, 1793, with the 3rd Congress). </P> <P> With but one exception, the Apportionment Act of 1842, Congress enlarged the House of Representatives by various degrees following each subsequent census through 1913, by which time the membership had grown to 435 . From the 1790s through the early 19th century, the seats were apportioned among the states using Jefferson's method . In 1842, the House was reduced from 242 to 223 members by the incoming Whig Party, which had ousted the Jacksonian Democrats . The Act of 1842 also contained an amendment which required single - member district elections rather than at - large elections within a state, prompting backlash against an increase in Congressional power . </P> <P> In 1842 the debate on apportionment in the House began in the customary way with a jockeying for the choice of a divisor using Jefferson's method . On one day alone, 59 different motions to fix a divisor were made in a House containing but 242 members . The values ranged from 30,000 to 140,000 with more than half between 50,159 and 62,172 . But the Senate had tired of this approach and proposed instead an apportionment of 223 members using Webster's method . In the House John Quincy Adams urged acceptance of the method but argued vehemently for enlarging the number of members, as New England's portion was steadily dwindling . </P> <P> From 1842 through the 1860s, the House increased minimally at each census and as new states were admitted to the union . But the Fourteenth Amendment dramatically increased the apportionment population of the Southern states because the black population counted fully instead of being reduced to three - fifths its numbers . As a result, a major increase in seats was needed to keep about the same number of seats in the northern states and the House was enlarged by 50 seats (21%) in respect of the 1870 census . The reapportionment of 1872 created a house size of 292 . No particular apportionment method was used during the period 1850 to 1890, but from 1890 through 1910, the increasing membership of the House was calculated in such a way as to ensure that no state lost a seat due to shifts in apportionment population . In 1881, a provision for equally populated contiguous and compact single member districts was added to the reapportionment law, and this was echoed in all decennial reapportionment acts through to 1911 . </P>

What are the 3 major provisions of the reapportionment act of 1929