Article 5 of the Constitution allows Congress to propose amendments (with two-thirds vote) that must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (today 38 of 50). Amendments are also necessary to withdraw existing amendments. There are 27 amendments to the Constitution as of 2023. Amendments allow revisions to or clarification of components of the Constitution. The first 10 amendments are known as the Bill of Rights, and they were ratified two years after the Constitution (1789). They were drafted and passed because of concerns among anti-Federalists about civil liberties.

The House of Representatives is one of two bodies that makes up the United States Congress. Like senators, representatives must meet specified age and citizenship requirements to serve. They serve terms of two years. In conjunction with the Senate, the House passes legislation that must be signed by the president to become law. The Constitution dictates that representatives are directly elected by their constituents in the states. The number of representatives from a state is not fixed; rather, the census clause of Article 1 states that representation will be proportional to a state’s population. Thus, the number of representatives allocated to a state may change every 10 years when the census is taken.