00:01Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
00:04Members, again, this is the amendment to strike the enacting clause.
00:09This amendment, if we adopt it, and I hope we will, will kill this bill and we'll end this sham process.
00:17And as you've already heard in this debate so far on this bill,
00:24this bill intentionally discriminates against black and Hispanic Texans,
00:29and other Texans of color, by cracking and packing minority communities across the state of Texas,
00:36in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, in Harris County, in the greater Houston area,
00:42in Austin, in San Antonio, in the Rio Grande Valley,
00:46it is a clear violation of the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.
00:53This body has no business passing this bill.
00:56We need to kill it and get on with the real business of the people of this state.
01:01And so I would ask that you vote no on the motion to table.
01:05I'd be happy to yield for questions.
01:07Mr. Speaker, Mr. Dutton, for what purpose?
01:08Will the gentleman yield for questions?
01:10Gentleman yield for questions?
01:11Yes, I will.
01:11He yields for questions.
01:13Do you know what changed between the 2021 litigation and today?
01:21No, Mr. Dutton, I do not know.
01:27I don't know what the reason for this is,
01:29other than apparently some people in D.C. called up and said they wanted it.
01:32But we have no new census data.
01:34We're still operating under the 2020 census data,
01:37because there's not been another census.
01:39So the data used for this map is more than five years old now.
01:42And so the way it stands now,
01:48you're aware that the DOJ letter was sent to Texas
01:53suggesting that certain changes ought to be made
01:58based on their determination that there was racial makeup of the maps,
02:05current maps.
02:06Yes, I'm aware of that letter that every voting rights expert I've heard from,
02:11we heard from several in our committee hearings, Mr. Dutton,
02:14respected voting rights experts who said that the DOJ letter
02:18has absolutely no basis in law.
02:20But that is the letter seemingly that set off this whole process
02:24because Governor Abbott cited it in his first proclamation
02:29calling the first special session.
02:31Interestingly, he did not cite it in the proclamation for this session.
02:34I don't know why that is, but it did set off the process seemingly.
02:37And the contents of the letter,
02:39is there anything different in this bill
02:42that's different in the letter?
02:47Yes.
02:48I don't have the letter with me,
02:51but the bill, or I'm sorry, the letter from DOJ
02:54specifically identified a handful of districts around the state.
02:58This bill impacts not only those districts,
03:03but multiple other districts around the state.
03:05So it extends the boundaries that were defined in the letter?
03:11I believe so, yes.
03:12And the basis,
03:15is the basis any different for the bill than in the letter?
03:18That might be a question best addressed to the bill author,
03:26but I think that the letter, in my opinion, Mr. Dunn,
03:31I think the letter was simply pretext to jumpstart this entire process.
03:37And no matter what people's process was for getting to where we are today,
03:46the end result is that more than 2 million black, Latino,
03:51and other minority Texans are going to have their voices diluted
03:55and extinguished in their ability to elect a candidate of their choice
03:59to the U.S. Congress.
04:00And it is wrong, and it's clearly illegal.
04:03Are you aware of the legal concept of disparate impact?
04:08Yes.
04:09I'm not a lawyer, but I am familiar with the term.
04:11Okay, yes.
04:12And so what it says is that you may,
04:16and this is giving them something,
04:18but you may have intended something not to be racial,
04:21but the reality of it is,
04:23and the effect of it is,
04:25that it has to be concluded to be racial.
04:28Absolutely, and I think as we hear the bill author
04:33and other proponents of this legislation talk about partisanship,
04:40we should not let that rhetoric fool any of us
04:44because what is happening is clearly racially discriminatory,
04:52and that's what the problem is with this map.
04:55And really, this political participation is simply a mask
04:59over what the real intent and the real effect of this bill is,
05:05which is to change it based on racial lines.
05:09Is that correct?
05:09I think that's very well said.
05:10And I have one last question.
05:12The latest map shifts population in Baytown from CD9 to CD36
05:18and then shifts the nearby population in Baytown from CD36 to CD39.
05:25Do you know why the map shifts these two sets of population
05:29in the same city back and forth like that?
05:32That's an excellent question, Chairman Dutton.
05:34I have no idea what the bill author's rationale for doing that was.
05:38Well, okay, Mr. Chairman, thank you for this amendment,
05:43and I think you have a good amendment.
05:45Thank you, Chairman Dutton.
05:46Thank you for this amendment.
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