Article 1 - The Legislative Branch, Section 2 - The House, of the U.S. Constitution states that "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand ... ." Before 1800, the population of the United States was about four million and there were 105 representatives in the House--one representative for 37 thousand people. In 2000, there were about 281 million people and 435 representatives--one representative for 647 thousand people.
According to Thirty-Thousand.org, "The framers of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights intended that the total population of Congressional districts never exceed 50 to 60 thousand. Currently, the average population size of the districts is nearly 700,000 and, consequently, the principle of proportionally equitable representation has been abandoned." Here is a plan for returning the House of Representatives back to the people.
1. Give each state one vote in the House of Representatives for every 50,000 (or some other appropriate number) of population.
2. Each state would decide how their Representatives to Congress would be elected. Instead of electing separate Federal Representatives, a state could choose to utilize their existing state representatives to also serve as Federal Representatives. The extra workload could be accommodated by adding staff. This approach could guarantee better representation without a large expansion of the number of political offices.
3. Each state would decide how many representatives to send to Washington D.C. to cast their votes. A state could decide to send just one representative to cast all their votes or several representatives for each party or constituency. The representative(s) in DC could be a separate individual or rotated among the elected representatives. The sole purpose of the representative would be to tally the votes of his state's representatives and cast the official vote in Congress.
4. The number of office spaces in Federally-owned or leased buildings provided, maintained, and paid for by the Federal government would be limited to what is currently available (or none, or fewer, but not more). Office space for any additional representatives and staff would be provided, maintained, and paid for by each State. Each state could essentially maintain embassies in DC.
This approach would allow citizens to have more representation, move political thought back to state capitals and away from the rarefied atmosphere inside the Beltway, and reduce the number of politicians but increase the number of openings for support staff. National security would be enhanced as elements of the Federal government are moved out of Washington, D.C. Overcrowding in Congressional office spaces, and in Washington in general, would be eased. Local interest groups would find it easier to lobby their representatives in their state capital. National interests would have to chase all the representatives who didn't stay in DC back to their state capitals, and in so doing, become more cognizant of local issues.