The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.

The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution. The major power of the House is to pass federal legislation that affects the entire country although its bills must also be passed by the Senate and further agreed to by the President before becoming law (unless both the House and Senate re-pass the legislation with a two-thirds majority in each chamber). Each state receives representation in the House in proportion to its population but is entitled to at least one representative. The most populous state, California, currently has 53 representatives. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435. Each representative serves for a two-year term. The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, traditionally the leader of the majority party is the presiding officer of the chamber, elected by the members of the House.

House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national states. In some countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often called a "Senate". In other countries, the House of Representatives is the sole chamber of a unicameral legislature. The functioning of a house of representatives can vary greatly from country to country, and depends on whether a country has a parliamentary or a presidential system. Members of a house of representatives are typically apportioned according to population rather than geography.

"The House of Representatives" is the name of the lower house of the legislature in the following countries:

In the following countries it is the sole chamber in a unicameral system:

In Indonesia, the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR) is generally known in English as the "House of Representatives", as is the Dewan Rakyat of the Parliament of Malaysia.

Under apartheid, the House of Representatives was the house for South Africa's mixed race 'Coloured' community, in the Tricameral Parliament of 1984 to 1994.

John Andrew Boehner ( /ˈbeɪnər/ BAY-nər; born November 17, 1949) is the 61st and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he is the U.S. Representative from Ohio's 8th congressional district, serving since 1991. The district includes several rural and suburban areas near Cincinnati and Dayton, and a small portion of Dayton itself.

Boehner previously served as the House Minority Leader from 2007 until 2011, and House Majority Leader from 2006 until 2007. As Speaker of the House, Boehner is second in line to the presidency of the United States following the Vice President in accordance with the Presidential Succession Act.

Boehner was born in Reading, Ohio, the son of Mary Anne (née Hall) and Earl Henry Boehner, the second of twelve children. His father was of German descent and his mother had German and Irish ancestry. He grew up in modest circumstances, having shared one bathroom with his eleven siblings in a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati. His parents slept on a pull-out couch. He started working at his family's bar at age 8, a business founded by their grandfather Andy Boehner in 1938. He has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life. All but two of his siblings still live within a few miles of each other; two are unemployed and most of the others have blue-collar jobs.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami (born in California, 1942), a Hindu sannyasin monk and a religious leader, is the head of Kauai's Hindu Monastery and publisher of Hinduism Today magazine. He is known for his initiative of digitizing the Saiva Agamas, mystical scriptures of the Hindu Saivite religion and the basis for Hindu temple liturgy, making them freely available in digital format and encouraging their study. The Adi Saiva Sivachariyar priestly community honors him as "The Supreme Acharya who has uplifted and preserved the Agamas and the Agama tradition." Bodhinatha presides over three organizations: Saiva Siddhanta Church, Himalayan Academy publications and Hindu Heritage Endowment.

Bodhinatha is the appointed successor of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, an influential Hindu Saivite guru. Klaus Klostermaier, one of the world's leading specialists on Hindu studies, said in his A Survey of Hinduism: "Sivaya Subramuniyaswami ... did much to propagate a kind of reformed Saivism through his books. As founder-editor of Hinduism Today, an illustrated monthly, he became the single-most advocate of Hinduism outside India." He ordained Bodhinatha as leader of Saiva Siddhanta Church and 163rd Guru Mahasannidhanam of the Kailasa Parampara lineage, a position of authority in Saivism.

Darrell Edward Issa (/ˈaɪsə/; Arabic: عيسى‎; born November 1, 1953) is the U.S. Representative for California's 49th congressional district, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was formerly a CEO of Directed Electronics, the Vista, California-based manufacturer of automobile security and convenience products. His district consists of portions of southern Riverside County and northern San Diego County. The district was numbered as the 48th District during his first term and was renumbered the 49th after the 2000 Census. Since January 2011, he has served as Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Issa is a self-made millionaire with a net worth estimated between $220 and $448 million, making him one of the wealthiest members of Congress. He was a major contributor to the 2003 recall election of Governor Gray Davis.

Issa was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the second of six children. His mother was a Mormon and his father Eastern Orthodox. Issa is the grandson of Lebanese immigrants.