document_title: United States House of Representatives

question_text: what determines the number of seats in the house of representatives

question_tokens: what determines the number of seats in the house of representatives

text: United States House of Representatives

text: History[edit]

text: Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a unicameral body in which each state was equally represented, and in which each state had a veto over most action. After eight years of a more limited confederal government under the Articles, numerous political leaders such as James Madison and Alexander Hamilton initiated the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which received the Confederation Congress's sanction to "amend the Articles of Confederation". All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates.

text: The issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. Edmund Randolph's Virginia Plan called for a bicameral Congress: the lower house would be "of the people", elected directly by the people of the United States and representing public opinion, and a more deliberative upper house that would represent the individual states, and would be less susceptible to variations of mass sentiment, would be elected by the lower house.[6]

text: The House is referred to as the lower house, with the Senate being the upper house, although the United States Constitution does not use that terminology. Both houses' approval is necessary for the passage of legislation. The Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, which called for a unicameral Congress with equal representation for the states.[6]

text: Eventually, the Convention reached the Connecticut Compromise or Great Compromise, under which one house of Congress (the House of Representatives) would provide representation proportional to each state's population, whereas the other (the Senate) would provide equal representation amongst the states.[6] The Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states (nine out of the 13) in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4, 1789. The House began work on April 1, 1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time.

text: During the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives. However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed.

text: Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery. One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War (1861–1865), which began soon after several southern states attempted to secede from the Union. The war culminated in the South's defeat and in the abolition of slavery. All southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, and therefore the Senate did not hold the balance of power between North and South during the war.

text: The years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Union's victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877; the ensuing era, known as the Gilded Age, was marked by sharp political divisions in the electorate. The Democratic Party and Republican Party each held majorities in the House at various times.

text: The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw a dramatic increase in the power of the Speaker of the House. The rise of the Speaker's influence began in the 1890s, during the tenure of Republican Thomas Brackett Reed. "Czar Reed", as he was nicknamed, attempted to put into effect his view that "The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch." The leadership structure of the House also developed during approximately the same period, with the positions of Majority Leader and Minority Leader being created in 1899. While the Minority Leader was the head of the minority party, the Majority Leader remained subordinate to the Speaker. The Speakership reached its zenith during the term of Republican Joseph Gurney Cannon, from 1903 to 1911. The powers of the Speaker included chairmanship of the influential Rules Committee and the ability to appoint members of other House committees. These powers, however, were curtailed in the "Revolution of 1910" because of the efforts of Democrats and dissatisfied Republicans who opposed Cannon's arguably heavy-handed tactics.

text: The Democratic Party dominated the House of Representatives during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), often winning over two-thirds of the seats. Both Democrats and Republicans were in power at various times during the next decade. The Democratic Party maintained control of the House from 1955 until 1995. In the mid-1970s, there were major reforms of the House, strengthening the power of sub-committees at the expense of committee chairs and allowing party leaders to nominate committee chairs. These actions were taken to undermine the seniority system, and to reduce the ability of a small number of senior members to obstruct legislation they did not favor. There was also a shift from the 1990s to greater control of the legislative program by the majority party; the power of party leaders (especially the Speaker) grew considerably.

text: The Republicans took control of the House in 1995, under the leadership of Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich attempted to pass a major legislative program, the Contract with America, on which the House Republicans had been elected, and made major reforms of the House, notably reducing the tenure of committee chairs to three two-year terms. Many elements of the Contract did not pass Congress, were vetoed by President Bill Clinton, or were substantially altered in negotiations with Clinton. The Republicans held on to the House until 2006, when the Democrats won control and Nancy Pelosi was subsequently elected by the House as the first female Speaker. The Republicans retook the House in 2011, with the largest shift of power since the 1930s.[7]

text: Membership, qualifications and apportionment[edit]

text:
This article is part of a series on the

United States House
of Representatives

History of the United States
House of Representatives

Members

Current members

(by seniority
by age
non-voting)

Former members

Hill committees

(DCCC
NRCC)

Congressional districts

Speaker of the United States
House of Representatives (list)

Party leaders
Democratic Caucus
Republican Conference

Politics and procedure

Committee of the Whole

Closed session (list)
Saxbe fix

Committees (list)
Procedures

Origination Clause
Quorum call

Unanimous consent
Salaries

Apportionment (Huntington–Hill method)

Redistricting
Gerrymandering

Articles of impeachment

Self-executing rule
Rules suspension

General ticket
Plural district

Places

United States Capitol

House office buildings

(Cannon
Ford
Longworth
Rayburn)

v
t
e

text: Apportionments[edit]

text: Under Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, seats in the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states by population, as determined by the census conducted every ten years. Each state is entitled to at least one Representative, however small its population.

text: The only constitutional rule relating to the size of the House states: "The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative."[8] Congress regularly increased the size of the House to account for population growth until it fixed the number of voting House members at 435 in 1911.[1] In 1959, upon the admission of Alaska and Hawaii, the number was temporarily increased to 437 (seating one Representative from each of those states without changing existing apportionment), and returned to 435 four years later, after the reapportionment consequent to the 1960 census.

text: The Constitution does not provide for the representation of the District of Columbia or of territories. The District of Columbia and the territories of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are each represented by one non-voting delegate. Puerto Rico elects a Resident Commissioner, but other than having a four-year term, the Resident Commissioner's role is identical to the delegates from the other territories. The five Delegates and Resident Commissioner may participate in debates; prior to 2011,[9] they were also allowed to vote in committees and the Committee of the Whole when their votes would not be decisive.[10]

text: Redistricting[edit]

text: States that are entitled to more than one Representative are divided into single-member districts. This has been a federal statutory requirement since 1967.[11] Prior to that law, general ticket representation was used by some states.

text: States typically redraw district boundaries after each census, though they may do so at other times, such as the 2003 Texas redistricting. Each state determines its own district boundaries, either through legislation or through non-partisan panels. "Malapportionment" is unconstitutional and districts must be approximately equal in population (see Wesberry v. Sanders). Additionally, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits redistricting plans that are intended to, or have the effect of, discriminating against racial or language minority voters.[12] Aside from malapportionment and discrimination against racial or language minorities, federal courts have allowed state legislatures to engage in gerrymandering for the benefit of political parties or incumbents.[13][14] In a 1984 case, Davis v. Bandemer, the Supreme Court held that gerrymandered districts could be struck down on the basis of the Equal Protection Clause, but the Court did not articulate a standard for when districts are impermissibly gerrymandered. However, the Court overruled Davis in 2004 in Vieth v. Jubelirer, and Court precedent currently holds gerrymandering to be a political question. According to calculations made by Burt Neuborne using criteria set forth by the American Political Science Association, about 40 seats, less than 10% of the House membership, are chosen through a genuinely contested electoral process, given partisan gerrymandering.[15][16]

text: Qualifications[edit]

text: Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for representatives. Each representative must: (1) be at least twenty-five years old; (2) have been a citizen of the United States for the past seven years; and (3) be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state he or she represents. Members are not required to live in the districts they represent, but they traditionally do.[17] The age and citizenship qualifications for representatives are less than those for senators. The constitutional requirements of Article I, Section 2 for election to Congress are the maximum requirements that can be imposed on a candidate.[18] Therefore, Article I, Section 5, which permits each House to be the judge of the qualifications of its own members does not permit either House to establish additional qualifications. Likewise a State could not establish additional qualifications.

text: Disqualification: under the Fourteenth Amendment, a federal or state officer who takes the requisite oath to support the Constitution, but later engages in rebellion or aids the enemies of the United States, is disqualified from becoming a representative. This post–Civil War provision was intended to prevent those who sided with the Confederacy from serving. However, disqualified individuals may serve if they gain the consent of two-thirds of both houses of Congress.

text: Elections[edit]

text: Elections for representatives are held in every even-numbered year, on Election Day the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. By law, Representatives must be elected from single-member districts. After a census is taken (in a year ending in 0), the year ending in 2 is the first year in which elections for U.S. House districts are based on that census (with the Congress based on those districts starting its term on the following Jan. 3).

text: In most states, major party candidates for each district are nominated in partisan primary elections, typically held in spring to late summer. In some states, the Republican and Democratic parties choose their respective candidates for each district in their political conventions in spring or early summer, which often use unanimous voice votes to reflect either confidence in the incumbent or the result of bargaining in earlier private discussions. Exceptions can result in so-called floor fight—convention votes by delegates, with outcomes that can be hard to predict. Especially if a convention is closely divided, a losing candidate may contend further by meeting the conditions for a primary election.

text: The courts generally do not consider ballot access rules for independent and third party candidates to be additional qualifications for holding office and there are no federal regulations regarding ballot access. As a result, the process to gain ballot access varies greatly from state to state, and in the case of a third party may be affected by results of previous years' elections.

text: In 1967, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Congressional District Act, which requires almost all representatives be elected from single-member-districts,[19][20] Following the Wesberry v. Sanders decision, Congress was motivated by fears that courts would impose at-large plurality districts on states that did not redistrict to comply with the new mandates for districts roughly equal in population, and Congress also sought to prevent attempts by southern states to use such voting systems to dilute the vote of racial minorities.[21] Several states have used multi-member districts in the past, although only two states (Hawaii and New Mexico) used multi-member districts in 1967.[20] Hawaii and New Mexico were made exempt from the Uniform Congressional District Act, and are free to use multi-member districts, although neither state chooses to do so.[20]

text: Louisiana is unique in that it holds an all-party "primary election" on the general Election Day with a subsequent runoff election between the top two finishers (regardless of party) if no candidate received a majority in the primary. The states of Washington and California now use a similar (though not identical) system to that used by Louisiana. Seats vacated during a term are filled through special elections, unless the vacancy occurs closer to the next general election date than a pre-established deadline. The term of a member chosen in a special election usually begins the next day, or as soon as the results are certified.

text: Non-voting delegates[edit]

text: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Additionally, Washington D.C. and the five inhabited U.S. territories each elect a non-voting delegate. With the exception of the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, each representative and delegate serves for a two-year term. They have a voice and can introduce bills on the floor, but cannot vote there.

text: Terms[edit]

text: Representatives and Delegates serve for two-year terms, while the Resident Commissioner serves for four years. The Constitution permits the House to expel a member with a two-thirds vote. In the history of the United States, only five members have been expelled from the House; in 1861, three were removed for supporting the Confederate states' secession: John Bullock Clark (D-MO), John William Reid (D-MO) and Henry Cornelius Burnett (D-KY). Michael Myers (D-PA) was expelled after his criminal conviction for accepting bribes in 1980, and James Traficant (D-OH) was expelled in 2002 following his conviction for corruption.[22] The House also has the power to formally censure or reprimand its members; censure or reprimand of a member requires only a simple majority, and does not remove that member from office.

text: Comparison to the Senate[edit]

text: As a check on the regional, popular, and rapidly changing politics of the House, the Senate has several distinct powers. For example, the "advice and consent" powers (such as the power to approve treaties) are a sole Senate privilege.[23] The House, however, has the exclusive power to initiate bills for raising revenue, to impeach officials, and to choose the President in the event that a presidential candidate fails to get a majority of the Electoral College votes.[24] The Senate and House are further differentiated by term lengths and the number of districts represented: the Senate has longer terms of six years, fewer members (currently one hundred, two for each state), and (in all but seven delegations) larger constituencies per member. The Senate is informally referred to as the "upper" house, and the House of Representatives as the "lower" house.

text: Salary and benefits[edit]

text: Salaries[edit]

text: As of December 2014[update], the annual salary of each Representative is $174,000.[25][26] The Speaker of the House and the Majority and Minority Leaders earn more: $223,500 for the Speaker and $193,400 for their party leaders (the same as Senate leaders).[26] A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it. Congress sets members' salaries; however, the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a change in salary (but not COLA[27]) from taking effect until after the next election of the whole House. Representatives are eligible for retirement benefits after serving for five years.[28] Outside pay is limited to 15% of congressional pay, and certain types of income involving a fiduciary responsibility or personal endorsement are prohibited.[26]

text: Titles[edit]

text: Representatives use the prefix "The Honorable" before their names. A member of the House is referred to as a representative, congressman, or congresswoman. While senators are members of Congress, the terms congressman and congresswoman are not generally used by them.

text: Pension[edit]

text: All members of Congress are automatically (without the option of withdrawal) enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System, a pension system also used for federal civil servants. They become eligible to receive benefits after five years of service (two and one-half terms in the House). The FERS is composed of three elements:

text:
Social Security
The FERS basic annuity, a monthly pension plan based on the number of years of service and the average of the three highest years of basic pay
The Thrift Savings Plan, a 401(k)-like defined contribution plan for retirement account into which participants can deposit up to a maximum of $18,000 in 2017.[needs update] Their employing agency matches employee contributions up to 5% of pay.

tag: ol

text: Members of Congress may retire with full benefits at age 62 after five years of service, at age 50 after twenty years of service, and at any age after twenty-five years of service. They may retire with reduced benefits at ages 55 to 59 after five years of service. Depending on birth year, they may receive a reduced pension after ten years of service if they are between 55 years and 57 years of age.[29]

text: Tax deductions[edit]

text: Members of Congress are permitted to deduct up to $3,000 of living expenses per year incurred while living away from their district or home state.[30]

text: Health benefits[edit]

text: Prior to 2014, members of Congress and their staff had access to essentially the same health benefits as federal civil servants; they could voluntarily enroll in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), an employer-sponsored health insurance program, and were eligible to participate in other programs, such as the Federal Flexible Spending Account Program (FSAFEDS).[31]

text: However, Section 1312(d)(3)(D) of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) provided that the only health plans that the federal government can make available to members of Congress and certain congressional staff are those created under the ACA or offered through a health care exchange. The Office of Personnel Management promulgated a final rule to comply with Section 1312(d)(3)(D).[31] Under the rule, effective January 1, 2014, members and designated staff are no longer able to purchase FEHBP plans as active employees.[31] However, if members enroll in a health plan offered through a Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) exchange, they remain eligible for an employer contribution toward coverage, and members and designated staff who are eligible for retirement may enroll in a FEHBP plan upon retirement.[31]

text: The ACA and the final rule do not affect members' or staffers' eligibility for Medicare benefits.[31] The ACA and the final rule also do not affect members' and staffers' eligibility for other health benefits related to federal employment, so current members and staff are eligible to participate in FSAFEDS (which has three options within the program), the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program, and the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program.[31]

text: There is an Office of the Attending Physician at the U.S. Capitol, which current members may seek health care from for an annual fee.[31] The attending physician provides routine exams, consultations, and certain diagnostics, and may write prescriptions (although it does not dispense them).[31] The office does not provide vision or dental care.[31]

text: Current members (but not their dependents, and not former members) may also receive medical and emergency dental care at military treatment facilities.[31] There is no charge for outpatient care if it is provided in the National Capital Region, but members are billed at full reimbursement rates (set by the Department of Defense) for inpatient care.[31] (Outside the National Capital Region, charges are at full reimbursement rates for both inpatient and outpatient care).[31]

text: Personnel, mail and office expenses[edit]

text: House members are eligible for a Member's Representational Allowance (MRA) to support them in their official and representational duties to their district.[32] The MRA is calculated based on three components: one for personnel, one for official office expenses and one for official or franked mail. The personnel allowance is the same for all members; the office and mail allowances vary based on the members' district's distance from Washington, D.C., the cost of office space in the member's district, and the number of non-business addresses in their district. These three components are used to calculate a single MRA that can fund any expense—even though each component is calculated individually, the franking allowance can be used to pay for personnel expenses if the member so chooses. In 2011 this allowance averaged $1.4 million per member, and ranged from $1.35 to $1.67 million.[33]

text: The Personnel allowance was $944,671 per member in 2010. Each member may employ no more than 18 permanent employees. Members' employees' salary is capped at $168,411 as of 2009.[33]

text: Travel allowance[edit]

text: Each member-elect and one staffer can be paid for one round trip between their home in their congressional district and Washington, D.C. for organization caucuses.[33]

text: Officers[edit]

text: Member officials[edit]

text: The party with a majority of seats in the House is known as the majority party. The next-largest party is the minority party. The Speaker, committee chairs, and some other officials are generally from the majority party; they have counterparts (for instance, the "ranking members" of committees) in the minority party.

text: The Constitution provides that the House may choose its own Speaker.[34] Although not explicitly required by the Constitution, every Speaker has been a member of the House. The Constitution does not specify the duties and powers of the Speaker, which are instead regulated by the rules and customs of the House. Speakers have a role both as a leader of the House and the leader of their party (which need not be the majority party; theoretically, a member of the minority party could be elected as Speaker with the support of a fraction of members of the majority party). Under the Presidential Succession Act (1947), the Speaker is second in the line of presidential succession behind the Vice President.

text: The Speaker is the presiding officer of the House but does not preside over every debate. Instead, s/he delegates the responsibility of presiding to other members in most cases. The presiding officer sits in a chair in the front of the House chamber. The powers of the presiding officer are extensive; one important power is that of controlling the order in which members of the House speak. No member may make a speech or a motion unless s/he has first been recognized by the presiding officer. Moreover, the presiding officer may rule on a "point of order" (a member's objection that a rule has been breached); the decision is subject to appeal to the whole House.

text: Speakers serve as chairs of their party's steering committee, which is responsible for assigning party members to other House committees. The Speaker chooses the chairmen of standing committees, appoints most of the members of the Rules Committee, appoints all members of conference committees, and determines which committees consider bills.

text: Each party elects a floor leader, who is known as the Majority Leader or Minority Leader. The Minority Leader heads their party in the House, and the Majority Leader is their party's second-highest-ranking official, behind the Speaker. Party leaders decide what legislation members of their party should either support or oppose.

text: Each party also elects a Whip, who works to ensure that the party's members vote as the party leadership desires. The current majority whip in the House of Representatives is Steve Scalise, who is a member of the Republican Party. The current minority whip is Steny Hoyer, who is a member of the Democratic Party. The whip is supported by chief deputy whips.

text: In the 112th Congress, the Democratic Party has an additional Assistant Minority Leader, Jim Clyburn, who ranks between the whips and the caucus/conference chair.

text: After the whips, the next ranking official in the House party's leadership is the Party Conference Chair (styled as the Republican Conference Chair and Democratic Caucus Chair).

text: After the Conference Chair, there are differences between each party's subsequent leadership ranks. After the Democratic Caucus Chair is the Campaign Committee Chair (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee), then the co-chairs of the Steering Committee. For the Republicans it is the Chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, followed by the Campaign Committee Chairman (styled as the National Republican Congressional Committee).

text: The chairs of House committees, particularly influential standing committees such as Appropriations, Ways and Means, and Rules, are powerful but not officially part of House leadership hierarchy. Until the post of Majority Leader was created, the Chair of Ways and Means was the de facto majority leader.

text: Leadership and partisanship[edit]

text: When the Presidency and Senate are controlled by a different party from the one controlling the House, the Speaker can become the de facto "leader of the opposition". Some notable examples include Tip O'Neill in the 1980s, Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, and John Boehner in the 2010s. Since the Speaker is a partisan officer with substantial power to control the business of the House, the position is often used for partisan advantage.

text: In the instance when the Presidency and both Houses of Congress are controlled by one party, the Speaker normally takes a low profile and defers to the President. For that situation the House Minority Leader can play the role of a de facto "leader of the opposition", often more so than the Senate Minority Leader, due to the more partisan nature of the House and the greater role of leadership.

text: Non-member officials[edit]

text: The House is also served by several officials who are not members. The House's chief such officer is the Clerk, who maintains public records, prepares documents, and oversees junior officials, including pages, until the discontinuation of the House pages in 2011. The Clerk also presides over the House at the beginning of each new Congress pending the election of a Speaker. Another officer is the Chief Administrative Officer, responsible for the day-to-day administrative support to the House of Representatives. This includes everything from payroll to foodservice.

text: The position of Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) was created by the 104th Congress following the 1994 mid-term elections, replacing the positions of Doorkeeper and Director of Non-Legislative and Financial Services (created by the previous congress to administer the non-partisan functions of the House). The CAO also assumed some of the responsibilities of the House Information Services, which previously had been controlled directly by the Committee on House Administration, then headed by Representative Charlie Rose of North Carolina, along with the House "Folding Room".

text: The Chaplain leads the House in prayer at the opening of the day. There is also a Sergeant at Arms, who as the House's chief law enforcement officer maintains order and security on House premises. Finally, routine police work is handled by the United States Capitol Police, which is supervised by the Capitol Police Board, a body to which the Sergeant at Arms belongs, and chairs in even-numbered years.

text: Procedure[edit]

text: Daily procedures[edit]

text: Like the Senate, the House of Representatives meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. At one end of the chamber of the House is a rostrum from which the Speaker, Speaker Pro Tempore, or (when in the Committee of the Whole) the Chair presides.[35] The lower tier of the rostrum is used by clerks and other officials. Members' seats are arranged in the chamber in a semicircular pattern facing the rostrum and are divided by a wide central aisle.[36] By tradition, Democrats sit on the left of the center aisle, while Republicans sit on the right, facing the presiding officer's chair.[37] Sittings are normally held on weekdays; meetings on Saturdays and Sundays are rare. Sittings of the House are generally open to the public; visitors must obtain a House Gallery pass from a congressional office.[38] Sittings are broadcast live on television and have been streamed live on C-SPAN since March 19, 1979,[39] and on HouseLive, the official streaming service operated by the Clerk, since the early 2010s.

text: The procedure of the House depends not only on the rules, but also on a variety of customs, precedents, and traditions. In many cases, the House waives some of its stricter rules (including time limits on debates) by unanimous consent.[40] A member may block a unanimous consent agreement; in practice, objections are rare. The presiding officer, the Speaker of the House enforces the rules of the House, and may warn members who deviate from them. The Speaker uses a gavel to maintain order.[41] The box in which legislation is placed to be considered by the House is called the hopper.[42]

text: In one of its first resolutions, the U.S. House of Representatives established the Office of the Sergeant at Arms. In an American tradition adopted from English custom in 1789 by the first Speaker of the House, Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, the Mace of the United States House of Representatives is used to open all sessions of the House. It is also used during the inaugural ceremonies for all Presidents of the United States. For daily sessions of the House, the sergeant at Arms carries the mace in front of the Speaker in procession to the rostrum. It is placed on a green marble pedestal to the Speaker's right. When the House is in committee, the mace is moved to a pedestal next to the desk of the Sergeant at Arms.[43]

text: The Constitution provides that a majority of the House constitutes a quorum to do business.[44] Under the rules and customs of the House, a quorum is always assumed present unless a quorum call explicitly demonstrates otherwise. House rules prevent a member from making a point of order that a quorum is not present unless a question is being voted on. The presiding officer does not accept a point of order of no quorum during general debate, or when a question is not before the House.[45]

text: During debates, a member may speak only if called upon by the presiding officer. The presiding officer decides which members to recognize, and can therefore control the course of debate.[46] All speeches must be addressed to the presiding officer, using the words "Mr. Speaker" or "Madam Speaker". Only the presiding officer may be directly addressed in speeches; other members must be referred to in the third person. In most cases, members do not refer to each other only by name, but also by state, using forms such as "the gentleman from Virginia", "the distinguished gentlewoman from California", or "my distinguished friend from Alabama".

text: There are 448 permanent seats on the House Floor and four tables, two on each side. These tables are occupied by members of the committee that have brought a bill to the floor for consideration and by the respective party leadership. Members address the House from microphones at any table or "the well," the area immediately in front of the rostrum.[47]

text: Passage of legislation[edit]

text: Per the constitution, the House determines the rules according to which it passes legislation. The rules are in principle open to change with each new Congress, but in practice each new session amends a standing set of rules built up over the history of the body in an early resolution published for public inspection.[48] Before legislation reaches the floor of the House, the Rules Committee normally passes a rule to govern debate on that measure (which then must be passed by the full House before it becomes effective). For instance, the committee determines if amendments to the bill are permitted. An "open rule" permits all germane amendments, but a "closed rule" restricts or even prohibits amendment. Debate on a bill is generally restricted to one hour, equally divided between the majority and minority parties. Each side is led during the debate by a "floor manager", who allocates debate time to members who wish to speak. On contentious matters, many members may wish to speak; thus, a member may receive as little as one minute, or even thirty seconds, to make his/her point.[49]

text: When debate concludes, the motion in question is put to a vote. In many cases, the House votes by voice vote; the presiding officer puts the question, and members respond either "yea" or "aye" (in favor of the motion) or "nay" or "no" (against the motion). The presiding officer then announces the result of the voice vote. A member may however challenge the presiding officer's assessment and "request the yeas and nays" or "request a recorded vote". The request may be granted only if it is seconded by one-fifth of the members present. In practice, however, members of congress second requests for recorded votes as a matter of courtesy. Some votes are always recorded, such as those on the annual budget.[50]

text: A recorded vote may be taken in one of three different ways. One is electronically. Members use a personal identification card to record their votes at 46 voting stations in the chamber. Votes are usually held in this way. A second mode of recorded vote is by teller. Members hand in colored cards to indicate their votes: green for "yea", red for "nay", and orange for "present" (i.e., to abstain). Teller votes are normally held only when electronic voting breaks down. Finally, the House may conduct a roll call vote. The Clerk reads the list of members of the House, each of whom announces their vote when their name is called. This procedure is only used rarely (such as for the election of a Speaker) because of the time consumed by calling over four hundred names.[50]

text: Voting traditionally lasts for, at most, fifteen minutes, but it may be extended if the leadership needs to "whip" more members into alignment.[50] The 2003 vote on the prescription drug benefit was open for three hours, from 3:00 to 6:00 a.m., to receive four additional votes, three of which were necessary to pass the legislation.[51] The 2005 vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement was open for one hour, from 11:00 p.m. to midnight.[52] An October 2005 vote on facilitating refinery construction was kept open for forty minutes.[53]

text: Presiding officers may vote like other members. They may not, however, vote twice in the event of a tie; rather, a tie vote defeats the motion.[54]

text: Committees[edit]

text: The House uses committees and their subcommittees for a variety of purposes, including the review of bills and the oversight of the executive branch. The appointment of committee members is formally made by the whole House, but the choice of members is actually made by the political parties. Generally, each party honors the preferences of individual members, giving priority on the basis of seniority. Historically, membership on committees has been in rough proportion to the party's strength in the House as a whole, with two exceptions: on the Rules Committee, the majority party fills nine of the thirteen seats;[55] and on the Ethics Committee, each party has an equal number of seats.[56] However, when party control in the House is closely divided, extra seats on committees are sometimes allocated to the majority party. In the 109th Congress, for example, the Republicans controlled about 53% of the House as a whole, but had 54% of the Appropriations Committee members, 55% of the members on the Energy and Commerce Committee, 58% of the members on the Judiciary Committee, and 69% of the members on the Rules Committee.

text: The largest committee of the House is the Committee of the Whole, which, as its name suggests, consists of all members of the House. The Committee meets in the House chamber; it may consider and amend bills, but may not grant them final passage. Generally, the debate procedures of the Committee of the Whole are more flexible than those of the House itself. One advantage of the Committee of the Whole is its ability to include otherwise non-voting members of Congress.

text: Most committee work is performed by twenty standing committees, each of which has jurisdiction over a specific set of issues, such as Agriculture or Foreign Affairs. Each standing committee considers, amends, and reports bills that fall under its jurisdiction. Committees have extensive powers with regard to bills; they may block legislation from reaching the floor of the House. Standing committees also oversee the departments and agencies of the executive branch. In discharging their duties, standing committees have the power to hold hearings and to subpoena witnesses and evidence.

text: The House also has one permanent committee that is not a standing committee, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and from time to time may establish committees that are temporary and advisory in nature, such as the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. This latter committee, created in the 110th Congress and reauthorized for the 111th, has no jurisdiction over legislation and must be chartered anew at the start of every Congress. The House also appoints members to serve on joint committees, which include members of the Senate and House. Some joint committees oversee independent government bodies; for instance, the Joint Committee on the Library oversees the Library of Congress. Other joint committees serve to make advisory reports; for example, there exists a Joint Committee on Taxation. Bills and nominees are not referred to joint committees. Hence, the power of joint committees is considerably lower than those of standing committees.

text: Each House committee and subcommittee is led by a chairman (always a member of the majority party). From 1910 to the 1970s, committee chairs were powerful. Woodrow Wilson in his classic study,[57] suggested:

text: Power is nowhere concentrated; it is rather deliberately and of set policy scattered amongst many small chiefs. It is divided up, as it were, into forty-seven seigniories, in each of which a Standing Committee is the court-baron and its chairman lord-proprietor. These petty barons, some of them not a little powerful, but none of them within the reach of the full powers of rule, may at will exercise almost despotic sway within their own shires, and may sometimes threaten to convulse even the realm itself.

text: From 1910 to 1975 committee and subcommittee chairmanship was determined purely by seniority; congressmembers sometimes had to wait 30 years to get one, but their chairship was independent of party leadership. The rules were changed in 1975 to permit party caucuses to elect chairmen, shifting power upward to the party leaders. In 1995, Republicans under Newt Gingrich set a limit of three two-year terms for committee chairs. The chairman's powers are extensive; he controls the committee/subcommittee agenda, and may prevent the committee from dealing with a bill. The senior member of the minority party is known as the Ranking Member. In some committees like Appropriations, partisan disputes are few.

text: Legislative functions[edit]

text: Most bills may be introduced in either House of Congress. However, the Constitution states, "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives". As a result of the Origination Clause, the Senate cannot initiate bills imposing taxes. This provision barring the Senate from introducing revenue bills is based on the practice of the British Parliament, in which only the House of Commons may originate such measures. Furthermore, congressional tradition holds that the House of Representatives originates appropriation bills.

text: Although it cannot originate revenue bills, the Senate retains the power to amend or reject them. Woodrow Wilson wrote the following about appropriations bills:[58]

text: [T]he constitutional prerogative of the House has been held to apply to all the general appropriations bills, and the Senate's right to amend these has been allowed the widest possible scope. The upper house may add to them what it pleases; may go altogether outside of their original provisions and tack to them entirely new features of legislation, altering not only the amounts but even the objects of expenditure, and making out of the materials sent them by the popular chamber measures of an almost totally new character.

text: The approval of the Senate and the House of Representatives is required for a bill to become law. Both Houses must pass the same version of the bill; if there are differences, they may be resolved by a conference committee, which includes members of both bodies. For the stages through which bills pass in the Senate, see Act of Congress.

text: The President may veto a bill passed by the House and Senate. If he does, the bill does not become law unless each House, by a two-thirds vote, votes to override the veto.

text: Checks and balances[edit]

text: The Constitution provides that the Senate's "advice and consent" is necessary for the President to make appointments and to ratify treaties. Thus, with its potential to frustrate Presidential appointments, the Senate is more powerful than the House.

text: The Constitution empowers the House of Representatives to impeach federal officials for "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors" and empowers the Senate to try such impeachments. The House may approve "articles of impeachment" by a simple majority vote; however, a two-thirds vote is required for conviction in the Senate. A convicted official is automatically removed from office and may be disqualified from holding future office under the United States. No further punishment is permitted during the impeachment proceedings; however, the party may face criminal penalties in a normal court of law.

text: In the history of the United States, the House of Representatives has impeached sixteen officials, of whom seven were convicted. (Another, Richard Nixon, resigned after the House Judiciary Committee passed articles of impeachment but before a formal impeachment vote by the full House.) Only two Presidents of the United States have ever been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Both trials ended in acquittal; in Johnson's case, the Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

text: Under the Twelfth Amendment, the House has the power to elect the President if no presidential candidate receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College. The Twelfth Amendment requires the House to choose from the three candidates with the highest numbers of electoral votes. The Constitution provides that "the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote." It is rare for no presidential candidate to receive a majority of electoral votes. In the history of the United States, the House has only had to choose a President twice. In 1800, which was before the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment, it elected Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr. In 1824, it elected John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson and William H. Crawford. (If no vice-presidential candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes, the Senate elects the Vice President from the two candidates with the highest numbers of electoral votes.)

text: Latest election results and current party standings[edit]

text: Current standing[edit]

text:
Affiliation
Members
Delegates/resident
commissioner
(non-voting)
State
majorities

Republican Party
235
2
32

Democratic Party
193
3
12

Independent
0
1
0

Vacant
7
0

Total
435
6

text: End of previous Congress[edit]

text:
Affiliation
Members
Delegates/resident
commissioner
(non-voting)
State
majorities

Republican Party
246
0

Democratic Party
187
5

Independent
0
1[60]
0

Vacant
2
0

Total
435
6

text:
U.S. representative bibliography (congressional memoirs)
Third-party members of the United States House of Representatives
Women in the United States House of Representatives
At-large


document_title: Super Mario Bros.

question_text: when was the first mario bros. game released

root

text: Super Mario Bros.

text: Gameplay

text: In Super Mario Bros., the player takes on the role of Mario, the protagonist of the series. Mario's younger brother, Luigi, is  controlled by the second player in the game's multiplayer mode and assumes the same plot role and functionality as Mario. The objective is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, survive the main antagonist Bowser's forces, and save Princess Toadstool.[6]:7 The game is a side-scrolling platformer; the player moves from the left side of the screen to the right side in order to reach the flag pole at the end of each level.

tag: p

text: The game world features coins scattered around for Mario to collect and special bricks marked with a question mark (?), which when hit from below by Mario may reveal more coins or a special item. Other "secret", often invisible, bricks may contain more coins or rare items. If the player gains a Super Mushroom, Mario grows to double his size and gains the ability to break bricks above him. If Mario gets hit in this mode, then instead of dying he turns back to regular Mario.[6]:12 Players start with a certain number of lives and may gain additional lives by picking up green spotted orange 1-Up mushrooms hidden in bricks, or by collecting 100 coins, defeating several enemies in a row with a Koopa shell, or bouncing on enemies successively without touching the ground. Mario loses a life if he takes damage while small, falls in a bottomless pit, or runs out of time. The game ends when all lives are lost, although a button input can be used on the game over screen to continue from the first level of the world in which the player died.[7]

text: Mario's primary attack is jumping on top of enemies, though many enemies have differing responses to this. For example, a Goomba will flatten and be defeated,[6]:12 while a Koopa Troopa will temporarily retract into its shell, allowing Mario to use it as a projectile.[6]:11 These shells may be deflected off a wall to destroy other enemies, though they can also bounce back against Mario, which will hurt or kill him.[6]:19 Other enemies, such as underwater foes and enemies with spiked tops, cannot be jumped on and damage the player instead.  Mario can also defeat enemies above him by jumping to hit the brick that the enemy is standing on. Mario may also acquire the Fire Flower from certain ? blocks that when picked up changes the color of Super Mario's outfit and allows him to throw fireballs. A less common item is the Starman, which often appears when Mario hits certain concealed or otherwise invisible blocks. This item makes Mario temporarily invincible to most hazards and capable of defeating enemies on contact.[6]:10

text: The game consists of eight worlds with four sub-levels called "stages" in each world."[8][6]:7 The final stage of each world takes place in a castle where Bowser is fought above a suspension bridge; the first seven of these Bowsers are "false Bowsers" whom are actually minions disguised as him, whilst the real Bowser is found in the 8th world. Bowser and his decoys are defeated by jumping over them and reaching the axe on the end of the bridge, although they can also be defeated using a Fire Flower. The game also includes some stages taking place underwater, which contain different enemies. In addition, there are bonuses and secret areas in the game. Most secret areas contain more coins for Mario to collect, but some contain "warp pipes" that allow Mario to advance directly to later worlds in the game without completing the intervening stages. After completing the game once, the player is rewarded with the ability to replay the game with changes made to increase its difficulty, such as all Goombas in the game being replaced with Buzzy Beetles, enemies similar to Koopa Troopas who cannot be defeated using the Fire Flower.[9]

text: Plot and setting

text: In the fantasy setting of the Mushroom Kingdom, a tribe of turtle-like creatures known as the Koopa Troopas invade the kingdom and uses the magic of its king, Bowser, to turn its inhabitants, known as the Mushroom People, into inanimate objects such as bricks, stones and horsehair plants. Bowser and his army also kidnap Princess Toadstool, the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom and the only one with the ability to reverse Bowser's spell. After hearing the news, Mario sets out to save the princess and free the kingdom from Bowser.[6]:2 After traveling through various parts of the kingdom and fighting Bowser's forces along the way, Mario reaches Bowser's final stronghold, where he is able to defeat him by striking an axe on the bridge suspended over lava he is standing on, breaking the bridge, defeating Bowser, and allowing for the princess to be freed and saving the Mushroom Kingdom.[10]

text: Development

text: Super Mario Bros., the successor to the 1983 arcade title Mario Bros., was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, both of whom belonged to Nintendo's Creative Department, and largely programmed by Toshihiki Nakago of SRD Company, Ltd.[11] Though not originally using any particular character, the very deliberate creative process of what would become their next game was motivated by their technical knowledge from previous games such as Excitebike, Devil World and Kung Fu, by a desire to give the ROM cartridge format "a final exclamation point" in light of the forthcoming Famicom Disk System which was expected to become the dominant new game delivery medium, and by continuing their legacy of "athletic games" with a character running and jumping with many obstacles. Miyamoto explained, "We felt strongly about how we were the first to come up with that genre, and it was a goal of ours to keep pushing it."[12][13] The game was made in tandem with The Legend of Zelda, another Famicom game directed and designed by Miyamoto, which released in Japan five months after Super Mario Bros. As a result, certain elements were carried over from The Legend of Zelda to Super Mario Bros; for instance, the fire bars that appear in the game’s castle levels began as an unused object from Zelda.[14] Development was aimed at simplicity in order to have a new game available for the end-of-year shopping season.[15]

text: The developers started by putting together a prototype in which the player simply moved a 16 by 32 pixel square around a single screen. Tezuka suggested the use of Mario after seeing the sales figures of Mario Bros., which was still selling well throughout the previous year.[16] The team chose to name the game "Super Mario Bros." after deciding to implement the Super Mushroom into the game.[13] The game initially made use of a concept in which Mario or Luigi could enter a rocket ship and drive it around while firing at enemies, but this went unused;[17] the final game's sky-based bonus stages are a remnant of this concept.[12][18] After releasing Mario Bros., the team had reflected that it had been an illogical gameplay decision for Mario to be hurt by stomping upon the walking turtles, so they decided that any future Mario game would "definitely have it so that you could jump on turtles all you want."[12] When designing King Koopa, Miyamoto initially imagined the character as an ox, taking inspiration from the character design of the Ox King the Toei Animation film Alakazam the Great. However, when Tezuka saw Miyamoto’s design for the character, he noted that it looked more akin to that of a turtle, prompting the two to work on defining and fleshing out the character’s design until coming up with his final appearance.[19]

text: The development of Super Mario Bros. is an early example of specialization in the video game industry, made possible and necessary by the capabilities of the Famicom. Miyamoto designed the game world and led a team of seven programmers and artists who turned his ideas into code, sprites, music and sound effects.[20]

text: The team based the level design around a small Mario, intending to later make his size bigger in the final version. Then they decided it would be fun to let Mario change his size via a power-up. The early level design was focused on teaching players that mushrooms were distinct from Goombas and would be beneficial to them, so in the first level of the game, the first mushroom is difficult to avoid if it is released.[21] The use of mushrooms to change size was influenced by common Japanese folktales in which people wander into forests and eat magical mushrooms; this also resulted in the game world being named the "Mushroom Kingdom". The team also deliberately chose not to have Mario begin levels as Super Mario in order to make obtaining a mushroom more gratifying for the player.[13] Miyamoto explained: "When we made the prototype of the big Mario, we did not feel he was big enough. So, we came up with the idea of showing the smaller Mario first, who could be made bigger later in the game; then players could see and feel that he was bigger."[22] A rumor stemming from a Japanese magazine claimed that the developers came up with the idea to include a small Mario after a bug in the game caused only the upper-half of his body to appear, but this claim has been disavowed by Miyamoto.[13] Miyamoto said the shell-kicking 1-up trick was intentionally designed and carefully tested, but "people turned out to be a lot better at pulling the trick off for ages on end than we thought".[12] Other features, such as blocks containing multiple coins, were inspired by programming glitches.[22]

text: Super Mario Bros. was developed via a 256-kilobit cartridge.[23] Due to technical limitations at the time, several tactics were used to save cartridge space. For instance, clouds and bushes in the game’s backgrounds use that same sprite recolored.[14] Sound effects were also recycled; the sound that plays when Mario is damaged is recycled and used as the sound effect for when he enters a pipe, as applies similarly to Mario jumping on an enemy and swimming in an underwater level.[15] After completing the game, the development team decided that they should introduce players with a simple, easy-to-defeat enemy rather than beginning the game with Koopa Troopas. By this point, the game had nearly run out of memory, so the designers created the Goombas by making a single static image and flipping it back and forth to save space while creating a convincing character animation.[24] After the addition of the game’s music, around 20 bytes of open cartridge space were left. Miyamoto used this remaining space to add a sprite of a crown into the game, which would appear in the player’s life counter if they managed to obtain at least 10 lives.[23]

text: World 1-1

text: During the third generation of video game consoles, tutorials which explained the mechanics of the game were rare.  Instead, players learned how a video game worked through being guided by level design. The opening section of Super Mario Bros. was therefore specifically designed in such a way that players would be forced to explore the mechanics of the game in order to be able to advance. Rather than confront the newly oriented player with obstacles, the first level of Super Mario Bros. lays down the variety of in-game hazards by means of repetition, iteration, and escalation.[25] In an interview with Eurogamer, Miyamoto explained that he created "World 1-1" to contain everything a player needs to "gradually and naturally understand what they're doing",  so that they can quickly understand how the game works. According to Miyamoto, once the player understands the mechanics of the game, the player will be able to play more freely and it becomes "their game."[26][27]

text: Minus World

text: The "Minus World" (also referred to as "World Negative One") is the name given to an unbeatable glitch level present in the original release of Super Mario Bros. World 1-2 contains a hidden warp zone, with warp pipes that transport the player to worlds 2, 3, and 4, accessed by running over a wall near the exit. If the player is able to exploit a bug that allows Mario to pass through bricks, the player can enter the warp zone by passing through the wall and the pipe to World 2-1 and 4-1 may instead transport the player to a stage labeled "World -1". This stage's map is identical to worlds 2-2 and 7-2, and upon entering the warp pipe at the end, the player is taken back to the start of the level, thus trapping the player in the level until all lives have been lost. Although the level name is shown as " -1" with a leading space on the heads-up display, it is actually World 36-1, with the tile for 36 being shown as a blank space.[28]

text: The Minus World bug in the Japanese Famicom Disk System version of the game behaves differently and creates multiple, completable stages. "World -1" is an underwater version of World 1-3 with an alternate color palette, and contains sprites of Princess Toadstool, Bowser, and Hammer Bros. "World -2" is an identical copy of World 7-3, and "World -3" is a copy of World 4-4, also with an alternate color palette. After completing these levels, the player returns to the title screen as if the game were completed.[29][30] There are actually hundreds of glitch levels beyond the Minus World, which can be accessed in a multitude of ways.[31][32]

text: Music

text: Nintendo sound designer Koji Kondo wrote the six-song musical score for Super Mario Bros., as well as designing all of the game's sound effects.[33] At the time he was composing, video game music was mostly meant to attract attention, not necessarily to enhance or conform to the game. Kondo's work on Super Mario Bros. was one of the major forces in the shift towards music becoming an integral and participatory part of video games.[34] Kondo had two specific goals for his music: "to convey an unambiguous sonic image of the game world", and "to enhance the emotional and physical experience of the gamer".[34]

text: The music of Super Mario Bros. is coordinated with the onscreen animations of the various sprites, which was one way which Kondo created a sense of greater immersion. Kondo wasn't the first to do this in a video game; for instance, Space Invaders features a simple song that gets faster and faster as the aliens speed up, eliciting a sense of stress and impending doom which matches the increasing challenge of the game.[35] However, Kondo attempted to take the idea further, stating that the primary question determining the use of a game's music was "Do the game and music fit one another?"[36] Unlike most games at the time, for which composers were hired later in the process to add music to a nearly finished game, Kondo was a part of the development team almost from the beginning of production, working in tandem with the rest of the team to create the game's soundtrack. Kondo's compositions were largely influenced by the game's gameplay, intending for it to "heighten the feeling of how the game controls".[37]

text: Before composition began, a prototype of the game was presented to Kondo so that he could get an idea of Mario's general environment and revolve the music around it. Kondo wrote the score with the help of a small piano to create appropriate melodies to fit the game's environments. After the development of the game showed progress, Kondo began to feel that his music did not quite fit the pace of the game, so he changed it a bit by increasing the songs' tempos.[38]  The music was further adjusted based on the expectations of Nintendo's play-testers.[39]

text: Release

text: Super Mario Bros. was first released in Japan on September 13, 1985, for the Famicom. It was later rereleased there for the Famicom Disk System, Nintendo's proprietary floppy disk drive for the Famicom.[1][3] The game was released in North America later that year for the Nintendo Entertainment System.[1][2] Alongside the game's separate release, the game was also released in 1988 along with the shooting range game Duck Hunt as part of a single ROM cartridge which came packaged with the NES as a pack-in title. This version of the game is extremely common in North America, with millions of copies of it having been manufactured and sold in the United States.[40][41][42] Another cartridge, touting the two games as well as World Class Track Meet, was also manufactured.[43]

text: The game's concrete North American release date is unknown and is frequently debated; despite generally being cited as having been released alongside the NES in October 1985 as a launch title, several other sources conflict with this statement, suggesting that the game may have released in other varying time frames ranging from November 1985 to early 1986.[1]

text: Alternate versions

text: As one of Nintendo's most popular games, Super Mario Bros. has been re-released and remade numerous times, with every single major Nintendo console up to the Wii U sporting its own port or remake of the game with the exception of the Nintendo 64.[44]

text: Ports

text: Super Mario Bros. has been ported several times since its release. A version of the game titled Super Mario Bros. Special developed by Hudson Soft was released in Japan in 1986 for the NEC PC-8801 and Sharp X1 personal computers. Despite featuring similar controls and graphics, the game has different level designs and new items, as well as brand new enemies based on enemies from Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.[44] A handheld LCD game titled Super Mario Bros was released as a part of Nintendo's Game & Watch line of LCD games.[45]

text: Vs. Super Mario Bros.

text: Vs. Super Mario Bros. is an arcade adaptation of the original version of Super Mario Bros, released through Nintendo's NES-based arcade cabinet, the Nintendo Vs. Unisystem (and its variant, Nintendo Vs. Dualsystem). Several of the game's levels are changed, containing narrower platforms, more dangerous enemies, and omitting several hidden secrets such as 1-ups, making the game more difficult than the original Super Mario Bros. Entirely new stages are also present, several of which went on to be featured in the game's Japanese sequel, Super Mario Bros 2.[44] The game was featured in an official contest during the 1986 ACME convention in Chicago.[46]

text: An emulated version of the title was released for the Nintendo Switch via the Arcade Archives collection on December 22, 2017.[47][48] Chris Kohler of Kotaku called the game "The meanest trick Nintendo ever played", referring to the several level changes as differences which made it difficult for people who had mastered the NES game.[49]

text: Super Mario All-Stars

text: A remade version of Super Mario Bros. was included as a part of Super Mario All-Stars, a compilation game  released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, alongside remakes of several of the other Super Mario games released for the NES.[50] The version of Super Mario Bros. included in this compilation has improved graphics and sound to match the SNES's 16-bit capabilities, as well as minor alterations to some of the game's collision mechanics. The game also features the ability for a player to save their progress midway through the game and changes the game's multiplayer mode so that the two players switch off after every level in addition to whenever a player dies. Super Mario All-Stars was also rereleased for the Wii as a re-packaged, 25th anniversary version, featuring the same version of the game, along with a 32-page art book and a compilation CD of music from various Super Mario games.[51]

text: Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

text: Super Mario Bros. Deluxe,[b] sometimes referred to as Super Mario Bros. DX, was released on the Game Boy Color in 1999 in North America and Europe[52] and in 2000 in Japan. Based on the original Super Mario Bros., it features an overworld level map, simultaneous multiplayer, a Challenge mode in which the player finds hidden objects and achieves a certain score in addition to normally completing the level, and eight additional worlds based on the main worlds of the Japanese 1986 game Super Mario Bros. 2. It is compatible with the Game Boy Printer. Compared to Super Mario Bros., the game features a few minor visual upgrades such as water and lava now being animated rather than static, and a smaller screen due to the lower resolution of the Game Boy Color.

text: It was released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console in 2014. In Japan, users who registered a Nintendo Network ID on their Nintendo 3DS system between December 10, 2013 and January 10, 2014 received a free download code, with emails with download codes being sent out starting January 27, 2014.[53] In Europe and Australia, users who registered a Nintendo Network ID on their Nintendo 3DS system between December 10, 2013 and January 31, 2014 received a free download code, with emails with download codes being sent out from February 13 to 28, 2014.[54][55] It was released for purchase on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in Europe on February 27, 2014,[56] in Australia on February 28, 2014,[57] and in North America on December 25, 2014.[58]

text: Re-releases

text: In early 2003, Super Mario Bros. was ported to the Game Boy Advance as a part of the Famicom Minis collection in Japan and as a part of the NES Series in the US. This version of the game is entirely emulated, making it completely identical to the original game. According to the NPD Group (which tracks game sales in North America), this re-released version of Super Mario Bros. was the best-selling Game Boy Advance game from June 2004 to December 2004.[59] In 2005, Nintendo re-released this port of the game as a part of the game's 20th Anniversary; this special edition of the game went on to sell approximately 876,000 units.[59]

text: The game is one of the 19 unlockable NES games included in the GameCube game Animal Crossing, for which it was distributed by Famitsu as a prize for owners of Dobutsu no Mori+; outside of this, the game can't be unlocked through in-game conventional means, and the only way to access it is through the use of a third-party cheat device such as a Game Shark or Action Replay.[60]

text: Super Mario Bros. is featured as one of the 30 included games with the NES Classic Edition, a dedicated video game console containing several NES games.[61] This version of the game allows for the use of suspension points to save in-game progress, and can be played in various different display styles, including its original 4:3 resolution, a "pixel-perfect" resolution and a style emulating the look of a cathode tube ray television.[13]

text: Virtual Console

text:
Super Mario Bros. has been re-released for several of Nintendo's game systems as a part of their Virtual Console line of classic video game releases. It was first released for the Wii on December 2, 2006 in Japan, December 25, 2006 in North America and January 5, 2007 in PAL regions. The release is a complete emulation of the original game, meaning that nothing is changed from the its original NES release.[62][63] This version of the game is also one of the "trial games" made available in the "Masterpieces" section in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where it can be demoed for a limited amount of time.[64]
A Nintendo 3DS release of the game was initially distributed exclusively to members of Nintendo's 3DS Ambassador Program in September 2011. A general release of the title later came through in Japan on January 5, 2012, in North America on February 16, 2012 and in Europe on March 1, 2012. The game was released for the Wii U's Virtual Console in Japan on June 5, 2013, followed by Europe on September 12, 2013 and North America on September 19, 2013.[65]

text: Modified versions

text: Several modified variants of the game have been released, many of which are ROM hacks of the original NES game. A promotional, graphically-modified version of the game titled All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros.[c] was officially released only in Japan in December 1986 for the Famicom Disk System as a promotional item given away by the popular Japanese radio show All Night Nippon and published by Fuji TV, the same company which later went on to publish Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (which was released outside of Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2). (and in turn is extremely rare). The game features graphics based upon the show, with sprites of the enemies, mushroom retainers, and other characters being changed to look like famous Japanese music idols, recording artists, and DJs as well as other people related to All-Night Nippon.[66] The game also makes use of the same slightly upgraded graphics and alternate physics featured in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. This version of the game is considered extremely rare, with copies going online for upwards of nearly $500.[67] On November 11, 2010, a special red variant of the Wii containing a pre-downloaded version of the game was released in Japan to celebrate Super Mario Bros.'s 25th anniversary. This version of the game features several graphical changes, such as "?" blocks instead having the number "25" on them to symbolize the game's anniversary.[67]

text: Super Luigi Bros., a redux of the game featuring Luigi, was included as a feature within NES Remix 2, based on a mission featured in the first NES Remix featuring Luigi in a backwards version of World 1-2. The player now controls Luigi instead of Mario, who now jumps higher and slides more when running on the ground similar to his appearance in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (if the game's two-player mode is selected, both players control as Luigi), and the game's level designs are exactly the same as they are in the original Super Mario Bros but completely mirrored (i.e. the game scrolls from left-to-right rather than vice versa).[68][69]

text: Reception

text: ReceptionReview scoresPublicationScoreAllGameNES: [9]GameSpotWii VC: 8.3/10[70]

tag: table

text: Super Mario Bros. was immensely successful and helped popularize side-scrolling platform games.[71] Altogether, excluding ports and rereleases, the original NES version of the game has sold 40.24 million copies, making it the bestselling video game in the Mario series and one of the bestselling video games of all time,[72][73] with 29 million copies sold in North America.[74] The game was the all-time bestselling game for over 20 years until its lifetime sales were ultimately surpassed by Wii Sports.[75] The game's Wii Virtual Console release was also successful, becoming the #1 selling game out of the service's line-up of games by mid-2007.[76]

text: Video game magazine Computer Entertainer / Video Game Update highly praised Super Mario Bros., writing that the game was worthy of "a spot in the hall of fame reserved for truly addictive action games", praising its "cute and comical" graphics and its lively music. It stated that the title was a must-have for the system, and considered its greatest strength to be its depth of play.[77]

text: Retrospective critical analysis of the game has been extremely positive, with many touting it as one of the best video games of all-time.[78] Nintendo Power listed it as the fourth best Nintendo Entertainment System video game, describing it as the game that started the modern era of video games as well as "Shigeru Miyamoto's masterpiece".[79] The game ranked first on Electronic Gaming Monthly's "Greatest 200 Games of Their Time" list[80] and was named in IGN's top 100 games of all-time list twice (in 2005 and 2007).[81] In 2009, Game Informer put Super Mario Bros. in second place on their list of "The Top 200 Games of All Time," behind The Legend of Zelda, saying that it "remains a monument to brilliant design and fun gameplay".[82] The Game Informer staff also ranked it the second best in their 2001 list of the top 100 games ever made.[83] In 2012, G4 ranked Super Mario Bros. first of the "Top 100 Video Games of All Time", citing its revolutionary gameplay as well as its role in helping recover the NA gaming industry from the Video Game Crash of 1983.[84] In 2014, IGN ranked Super Mario Bros. as the best Nintendo game in their "Top 125 Nintendo Games of All Time" list, saying that "this is the most important Nintendo game ever made".[85]:9 In a poll held by IGN in 2005, the game was ranked number one in the website's list of the 100 greatest video games of all-time.[86] In 2017, Polygon ranked the game #8 out of the core Super Mario games, crediting the game with "kick[ing] off this franchise's habit of being an exception to so many rules".[87] In 2018, Business Insider included the game as number 2 in their list of the top 10 Super Mario games.[88]

text: Several critics have praised the game for its precise controls, which allow the player to control how high and far Mario or Luigi jumps, and how fast he runs.[62] AllGame gave Super Mario Bros. a five-star rating, stating that "[T]he sense of excitement, wonder and – most of all – enjoyment felt upon first playing this masterpiece of videogame can't barely be put into words. And while its sequels have far surpassed it in terms of length, graphics, sound and other aspects, Super Mario Bros., like any classic – whether of a cinematic or musical nature – has withstood the test of time, continuing to be fun and playable" and that any gamer "needs to play this game at least once, if not simply for a history lesson".[9] Reviewing the Virtual Console Release of the game, IGN called it "an absolute must for any gamer's Virtual Console collection."[8] Darren Calvert of Nintendo Life called the game's visuals "unavoidably outdated" compared to newer games, but mused that they were impressive at the time that the game was released.[89]

text:
The Game Boy Advance port of Super Mario Bros. holds an aggregate score of 84 on Metacritic.[90] Many critics compared the port to previous ports of the game such as Super Mario Deluxe and Super Mario All-Stars, noting its comparative lack of brand new content to separate it from the original version of the game. Jeremy Parish of 1up.com called the game "The most fun you'll ever have while being robbed blind," ultimately giving the game a score of 80% and praising its larger-scaling screen compared to Deluxe while greatly criticizing its lack of new features.[91] IGN's Craig Harris labeled the game as a "must-have," but also mused "just don't expect much more than the original NES game repackaged on a tiny GBA cart."[92]
GameSpot gave the port a 6.8 out of 10, generally praising the gameplay but musing that the port's graphical and technical differences from the original version of the game "prevent this reissue from being as super as the original game."[93]

text: The Game Boy Color port of the game also received wide critical appraisal; IGN's Craig Harris gave Super Mario Bros. Deluxe a perfect score, praising it as a perfect translation of the NES game. He hoped that it would be the example for other NES games to follow when being ported to the Game Boy Color.[94] GameSpot gave the game a 9.9, hailing it as the "killer app" for the Game Boy Color and praising the controls and the visuals (it was also the highest rated game in the series, later surpassed by Super Mario Galaxy 2 which holds a perfect 10).[95] Both gave it their Editors' Choice Award.[96][97] Allgame's Colin Williamson praised the porting of the game as well as the extras, noting the only flaw of the game being that sometimes the camera goes with Mario as he jumps up.[98] Nintendo World Report's Jon Lindemann, in 2009, called it their "(Likely) 1999 NWR Handheld Game of the Year," calling the quality of its porting and offerings undeniable.[99] Nintendo Life gave it a perfect score, noting that it retains the qualities of the original game and the extras.[100] St. Petersburg Times' Robb Guido commented that in this form, Super Mario Bros. "never looked better."[101] The Lakeland Ledger's Nick S. agreed, praising the visuals and the controls.[102] In 2004, a Game Boy Advance port of Super Mario Bros. (part of the Classic NES Series) was released, which had none of the extras or unlockables available in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. Of that version, IGN noted that the version did not "offer nearly as much as what was already given on the Game Boy Color" and gave it an 8.0 out of 10.[103] Super Mario Bros. Deluxe ranked third in the best-selling handheld game charts in the U.S. between June 6 and 12, 1999[104] and sold over 2.8 million copies in the U.S.[105] It was included on Singapore Airlines flights in 2006.[106] Lindemann noted Deluxe as a notable handheld release in 1999.[107]

text: Legacy

text: The success of Super Mario Bros. led to the development of many successors in the Super Mario series of video games, which in turn form the core of the greater Mario franchise. Two of these sequels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3, were direct sequels to the game and were released for the NES, experiencing similar levels of commercial success. A different sequel, also titled Super Mario Bros. 2, was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986 exclusively in Japan, and was later released elsewhere as a part of Super Mario All-Stars under the name Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. The gameplay concepts and elements established in Super Mario Bros. are prevalent in nearly every Super Mario game. The series consists of over 15 entries; at least one Super Mario game has been released on nearly every Nintendo console to date. Super Mario 64, an entry in the series and the first to take place in a three-dimensional environment, is widely considered one of the greatest games ever made, and is largely credited with revolutionizing the platforming genre of video games and its step from 2D to 3D. The most recent release is Super Mario Odyssey, released in 2017 for the Nintendo Switch. The series is one of the best-selling, with over 310 million copies of games sold worldwide as of September 2015.[108] In 2010, Nintendo released special red variants of the Wii and Nintendo DSi XL consoles in re-packaged, Mario-themed limited edition bundles as part of the 25th anniversary of the game's original release.[109] To celebrate the series' 30th anniversary, Nintendo released Super Mario Maker, a game for the Wii U which allows players to create custom platforming stages using assets from Super Mario games and in the style of Super Mario Bros. along with other styles based around different games in the series.[110]

text: The game's success helped to push Mario as an American cultural icon; in 1990, a study taken in North America suggested that more children in the United States were familiar with Mario than they were with Mickey Mouse, another popular media character.[111] The game's musical score composed by Koji Kondo, particularly the game's "overworld" theme, has also become a prevalent aspect of popular culture, with the latter theme being featured in nearly every single Super Mario game.[112] Alongside the NES platform as a whole, Super Mario Bros. is often credited for having resurrected the video game industry after it had experienced a market crash in 1983.[86]

text: Super Mario Bros. and its sequels inspired various projects in media; the 1986 anime film Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! is acknowledged as one of the first feature-length films to be based directly off of a video game.[113] A live-action film based on the game was released theatrically in 1993, starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi, respectively. An American animated television series titled The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! ran from 1989 to 1990, starring professional wrestler Lou Albano as Mario and Danny Wells as Luigi. An animated film based on the series created by Illumination Entertainment is currently in production.[114]

text: In the United States Supreme Court case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted an amicus brief which supported the overturn a law which would ban violent video games in the state of California. The brief cited social research that declared Super Mario Bros, among several others, to contain cartoon violence similar to that found in children's programs such as Mighty Mouse and Road Runner that garnered little negative reaction from the public.[115][116]

text: Video game developer Yuji Naka has cited Super Mario Bros. as a large inspiration towards the concept for the immensely successful 1991 Sega Genesis game, Sonic the Hedgehog; according to Naka, the general idea for the game first materialized when he was playing through game and trying to beat the game’s first level as quickly as possible, and thought about the concept of a platformer based around moving as fast as possible.[29]

text: Super Mario Bros. has served as inspiration for several fangames. In 2009, developer SwingSwing released Tuper Tario Tros, a game which combines elements of Super Mario Bros. with Tetris.[117][118] Super Mario Bros. Crossover, a PC fangame developed by Jay Pavlina and released in 2010 as a free browser-based game, is a full recreation of Super Mario Bros. that allows the player to alternatively control various other characters from Nintendo games, including Mega Man, Link from The Legend of Zelda, Samus from Metroid, and Simon Belmont from Castlevania.[119] Mari0, released in December 2012, combines elements of the game with that of Portal by giving Mario a portal gun which he can use to seamlessly transport from one area of a level to another.[120] In 2015, game designer Josh Millard released Ennuigi, a metafictional fangame with commentary on the original game which relates to Luigi's inability to come to terms with the game's overall lack of narrative.[121][122][123][124]

text: Notes

text:
Jump up ^ スーパーマリオブラザーズ (Sūpā Mario Burazāzu) in Japanese

Jump up ^ Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Japanese: スーパーマリオブラザーズデラックス, Hepburn: Sūpā Mario Burazāzu Derakkusu)

Jump up ^ All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. (Japanese: オールナイトニッポン スーパーマリオブラザーズ, Hepburn: Ōrunaito Nippon Sūpā Mario Burazāzu)


document_title: I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! (UK series 6)

question_text: who won i m a celebrity in 2006

question_tokens: who won i m a celebrity in 2006

text: Celebrities[edit]

text:
Celebrity
Famous for
Status

Matt Willis
Former Busted singer
Winner
on 1 December 2006

Myleene Klass
Hear'Say singer & model
Runner-up
on 1 December 2006

Jason Donovan
Stage & screen performer
Third place
on 1 December 2006

David Gest
Music promoter
Eliminated 9th
on 30 November 2006

Dean Gaffney
Former EastEnders actor
Eliminated 8th
on 30 November 2006

Jan Leeming
Television presenter & journalist
Eliminated 7th
on 29 November 2005

Malandra Burrows
Emmerdale actress & singer
Eliminated 6th
on 28 November 2006

Phina Oruche
Footballer's Wives actress
Eliminated 5th
on 27 November 2006

Lauren Booth
Broadcaster, journalist & activist
Eliminated 4th
on 26 November 2006

Faith Brown
Comedian & impressionist
Eliminated 3rd
on 25 November 2006

Scott Henshall
Fashion designer
Eliminated 2nd
on 24 November 2006

Toby Anstis
Global Radio presenter
Eliminated 1st
on 23 November 2006

text: Camps[edit]

text: On Day 8, the camp was split in two for the first time in I'm A Celebrity history and took part in a 'Battle of The Sexes' like competition. Team Base Camp consisted of David, Dean, Jason, Matt, Scott and Toby. Team Snake Rock consisted of Faith, Jan, Lauren, Malandra, Myleene and Phina.

text: The two teams competed in Bushtucker Trials for food, and in Celebrity Chests for treats and other luxury items. The final head to head trial was to win immunity from the first elimination. The girls won, meaning the men faced the public vote. Toby was eventually evicted.

text: The first competitive Celebrity Chest, contested between Matt & Scott of Team Base Camp and Lauren & Phina of Team Snake Rock ended in controversy when Scott and Phina fought over the chest, resulting in Phina biting Scott.

text: Results and elimination[edit]

text:
Indicates that the celebrity was immune from the public vote

Indicates that the celebrity received the most votes from the public

Indicates that the celebrity received the least amount of public votes and was immediately eliminated (no bottom two/three)

Indicates that the celebrity was in the bottom two or three in the public vote

text:
Daily results per celebrity

Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Number of
trials

Round 1
Round 2
Round 1
Round 2

Matt
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Bottom two
Safe
Safe
Safe
Winner
(Day 19)
4

Myleene
Immune
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Runner-up
(Day 19)
4

Jason
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
3rd
Eliminated
(Day 19)
5

David
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
4th
Eliminated
(Day 18)
2

Dean
Bottom two
Safe
Safe
Safe
Safe
Bottom two
Safe
5th
Eliminated
(Day 18)
2

Jan
Immune
Safe
Safe
Safe
Bottom two
Safe
6th
Eliminated
(Day 17)
6

Malandra
Immune
Safe
Bottom two
Bottom two
Safe
7th
Eliminated
(Day 16)
2

Phina
Immune
Safe
Safe
Safe
8th
Eliminated
(Day 15)
3

Lauren
Immune
Bottom two
Safe
9th
Eliminated
(Day 14)
2

Faith
Immune
Safe
10th
Eliminated
(Day 13)
1

Scott
Safe
11th
Eliminated
(Day 12)
5

Toby
12th
Eliminated
(Day 11)
0

Bottom two/
three
(named in)
Dean
Toby
Lauren
Scott
Faith
Malandra
Lauren
Malandra
Jan
Phina
Dean
Malandra
Jan
Matt
None

Eliminated
Toby
Fewest votes
to save
Scott
Fewest votes
to save
Faith
Fewest votes
to save
Lauren
Fewest votes
to save
Phina
Fewest votes
to save
Malandra
Fewest votes
to save
Jan
Fewest votes
to save
Dean
Fewest votes
to save
David
Fewest votes
to save
Jason
Fewest votes
to win
Myleene
Fewest votes
to win

Matt
Most votes
to win

text: Notes[edit]

text: ^1 On Day 18, there was a double elimination. First the hosts revealed that Dean had the least votes and he was eliminated. The phone lines were reopened for the other contestants, and later the hosts returned to camp to reveal that David now the least votes, and he was also sent home.

text: Bushtucker Trials[edit]

text: The contestants take part in daily trials to earn food. The participants are chosen by the public, up until the first eviction, when the campers decide who will take part in the trial

text:
Trial
number
Air date
Name of trial
Celebrity
participation
Winner/Number of stars
Notes

1
13 November 2006
Mineshaft Misery
Jan

None

2
14 November 2006
Flash Flood
David

None

3
15 November 2006
Jungle Boogie
Scott

1

4
16 November 2006
Treetop Terror
Jan
Scott

None

5 (Live)
17 November 2006
Jungle Spa
Dean

2

6
18 November 2006
Operation
Phina

3

Jason

7
19 November 2006
Snake Bite
Jan

4

8
20 November 2006
Bull in a China Shop
Jan

None

9
21 November 2006
Catch A Falling Star
Jan
Scott
Jan
5

10
22 November 2006
Bushtucker Duel
Jan
Scott
Scott
None

11
23 November 2006
What Lurks Beneath
Phina
Scott
Phina
6

12
24 November 2006
Thunderball
Jason
Malandra
Matt

None

13
25 November 2006
Jungle Falls
Dean
Lauren
Phina

None

14
26 November 2006
Tomb of Torment
Myleene

None

15
27 November 2006
Shooting Gallery
David
Jason
Matt

None

16
28 November 2006
Skyscrape
Malandra
Myleene

None

17
29 November 2006
Temple of Doom
Dean

None

18
30 November 2006
Celebrity Cyclone
Jason
Myleene
Matt

7

19
1 December 2006
Bushtucker Bonanza
Matt

None

20
1 December 2006
Fill Your Face
Jason

None

21
1 December 2006
Scareoke
Myleene

None

text: Notes[edit]

text: ^1 For the trial, Scott had to dance to 10 songs whilst bugs were dropped on his head. Scott danced to one song before shouting "I'm A Celebrity...Get Me out of Here!". This is often touted as the worst ever performance in a Bush Tucker Trial.

text: ^2 The public were asked to choose between 2 new campers, Dean and Malandra. Whoever the public voted for would take part in the trial and enter the camp.

text: ^3 The public voted for Phina to take part in the trial. She was allowed to choose the second person to take part. She chose Jason.

text: ^4 Upset at the prospect of taking part in the Trial, Jan was allowed to take one campmate to the trial for support. She chose Jason.

text: ^5 This was the first head to head trial.

text: ^6 The winner of the trial won immunity from the first vote off for their camp. Snake Rock won, meaning the male campers faced the public vote.

text: ^7 David did not attend the trial, so his stars were taken by Myleene & Matt.