Congress, as proposed by the delegates of the Constitutional Convention, were explained to the people by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in the Federalist Papers 52-66 . Today, each state is represented in Congress by two Senators and a variable number of members of the House of Representatives based on the state?s population as reported in the most recent decennial census. The process of fairly determining the number of members of the House from each state is called " apportionment ." The first census in 1790 counted 4 million Americans. Based on that count, the total number of members elected to the House of Representatives grew from the original 65 to 106. The current House membership of 435 was set by Congress in 1911.