February 28, 2026

After each decennial US census , the US constitution requires the apportionment of House seats among the states after each. While constitutionally required , the apportionment specific procedures, timelines, House size, and apportionment formula are set by federal statute. In a frictionless world , the movement would be instantaneous. Therefore, the fact that the migration is a small percent of the population points to a gradual adjustment which we attribute to “transportation costs,” broadly defined to include lifestyle , after tax income opportunities and cost of living among other considerations. While these costs vary for different people , we can safely generalize that the higher the costs the smaller the migration. The higher costs also impact the quality of the migrants, their “income gain” threshold needed to make the migration worthwhile increases as the transportation costs rise. The transportation costs explain why only 8 of the 435 seats are expected to be reallocated to pro-growth states. Measures aimed at reducing the “transportation costs” will ease the migration across state line and that in turn will accelerate the equilibrating process discussed in the previous paragraphs.

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