Non-voting members of the United States House of Representatives
[1][2][3] There are currently six non-voting members: a delegate representing the District of Columbia, a resident commissioner representing Puerto Rico, as well as one delegate for each of the other four permanently inhabited U.S. territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
[4] They receive compensation, benefits, and franking privileges (the ability to send outgoing U.S. mail without a stamp) similar to full House members.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 allowed for territory with "five thousand free male inhabitants of full age" to elect a non-voting delegate to the Continental Congress.
[7] After the ratification of the Constitution, the first United States Congress reenacted the Ordinance and extended it to include the territories south of the Ohio River.
In 1790, the state of North Carolina—having recently ratified the constitution, becoming the 12th state—sent its congressional delegation to what was then the federal capital at New York City.
[10] On September 3, 1794, James White was elected by the Southwest Territory, which contained the former Washington District, to be their delegate to Congress.
Representative James Madison stated "The proper definition of Mr. White is to be found in the Laws and Rules of the Constitution.
[6] He was also extended franking privileges, which allowed him to send official mail free of charge, and compensation at the same rate as members.
During a special session held in July 1969, Salanoa Aumoeualogo, the President of the American Samoa Senate, introduced Senate Bill 54 to create a delegate at-large to Washington with four-year terms (without congressional rights), which was approved by Governor Owen Aspinall on August 8, 1969.
A. U. Fuimaono was elected at the first delegate at-large in 1970 before ending his term to run unsuccessfully for Governor of American Samoa.
He went to Washington knowing his term would be limited to two years, since a law had passed establishing an official non-voting delegate seat for American Samoa.
In 1972, the House agreed to admit Ron de Lugo as a delegate from the United States Virgin Islands, which had been a U.S. territory since 1917 after they were purchased from Denmark under the 1916 Treaty of the Danish West Indies.
[19] In 1972, the House also agreed to admit Antonio Borja Won Pat as a delegate from Guam, which had been a U.S. territory since 1899 when it was ceded to the United States by Spain under the Treaty of Paris.
Won Pat had been serving as the Washington Representative since 1965, an office without congressional rights that lobbied for a place in the House.
[23] However, the Choctaw did send a non-congressional delegate to Washington for most of the 19th century as an ambassador to represent them before the U.S. government, the most noteworthy being Peter Pitchlynn.
[29] Unlike the situation at the federal level, Maine's state-level tribal delegates are established by state law rather than treaties.
[35] Teehee remained unseated as of September 2022,[36] when the Cherokee Nation government reiterated their insistence that Congress seat her.
[39] In 1993, the 103rd Congress approved a rule change that allowed the four delegates and the resident commissioner to vote on the floor of the House, but only in the Committee of the Whole.
[41] In 1995, this rule was reversed by the newly seated Republican majority in the 104th Congress; stripping the delegates, all of whom caucused with the Democrats, of even non-decisive voting privileges.
[43] After taking back control of the House in 2011, Republicans revoked the right of delegates to vote in the Committee of the Whole during the term of the 112th Congress.
[44][45] In 2019, Democrats took back control of the House and delegates have retained the right to vote in the Committee of the Whole since the 116th United States Congress.
