By laws of the U.S. Constitution, the federal government is required to carry on a census <u>every 10 years</u> that calculates how many people are currently living in each state. Occasionally, as the population goes up or down in certain states, a <u>reapportionment of U.S. House seats must be done in order to adjust to the changes.</u>
<u>Re-election rates</u> for incumbent members of the congress has always been extremely high. <u>Historically, it has rarely gone down 90%</u>. However, for States that experience slow growth or rapid loss of population, the threat of losing seats becomes an actual concern for congress members.