Article I, Section 5 requires a majority of each chamber to constitute a quorum for conducting business. The Constitution doesn''t specify how to determine if a quorum exists, so each chamber sets its own rules. For decades, the House only counted members who actually voted, which let the minority party block legislation by refusing to vote—they''d just sit silently during roll calls, preventing a quorum. Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed ended this ''disappearing quorum'' tactic on January 29, 1890, ruling that members physically present in the chamber count toward a quorum even if they don''t vote. Democrats protested furiously. When James McCreary of Kentucky objected to being counted, Reed shot back: ''The Chair is making a statement of the fact that the gentleman from Kentucky is present. Does he deny it?'' Reed''s counting rule, later codified as House Rule XV, broke the minority''s obstruction power and made the 51st Congress the most productive since the Civil War.