- 2 months ago
The Texas Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting held a hearing.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting will come to order.
00:14The clerk will please call the roll.
00:16Senator King?
00:17Here.
00:18Senator Creighton?
00:19Here.
00:20Senator Alvarado?
00:21Here.
00:22Senator Hinojosa?
00:23Here.
00:24Senator Hughes?
00:25Here.
00:26Senator Miles?
00:27Here.
00:28Senator Parker?
00:29To be eight present, a quorum has been established.
00:34I do.
00:35Members, the purpose of today's hearing is to lay out a bill.
00:39Members, as stated on the posting, we will not be taking public testimony today.
00:48And let me pass the gavel at this time to Senator Creighton.
00:51Senator Creighton?
00:52Senator Creighton?
00:53Senator Creighton?
00:54Senator Creighton?
00:55Senator Creighton?
00:56Senator Creighton?
00:57Senator Creighton?
00:58Senator Creighton?
00:59Senator Creighton, Chairman at this time, the chair lays out House Bill 4 and recognizes
01:08Senate sponsor Senator King to layout the bill.
01:11Senator King?
01:13Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
01:14And members, I've just got a little bit I've got to go over here.
01:17I reintroduced SB 4 on August the 15th, the first day of the special session.
01:25Our committee heard SB 4 on Sunday, August 17th, and favorably passed it out.
01:34Now, before us today is HB 4, the companion to SB 4 that passed out of the House yesterday.
01:43There are some minor differences between SB 4 and HB 4 that I will review with you shortly.
01:52It is my understanding that the House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting drew this revised version of the map with its outside counsel and experts.
02:04My counsel has reviewed this as well and concluded that it complies with all applicable law.
02:15Now, as I said, on August 15th, I reintroduced SB 4, which was identical to the bill that the full Senate passed out in the first special session.
02:26This committee held a hearing for public testimony on August 17th, and we heard from 42 witnesses.
02:36That means this committee has heard testimony over this special and last special, if my math is correct, from 247 people testifying on redistricting.
02:50At the conclusion of the August 17th hearing, this committee favorably reported SB 4 out of committee by a vote of 6 ayes to 3 nays.
03:04Now, where we're at this morning, on August the 18th, as I said, the House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting introduced a substitute bill for House Bill 4, which they passed out of committee at that time.
03:18The substitute, which is now HB 4 engrossed and before us today, affected 12 congressional districts, including CDs 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 17, 18, 22, 29, 36, and 38,
03:43while maintaining the five now Republican-leaning districts, CDs 9, 28, 32, 34, and 35.
03:57Additionally, HB 4 slightly changed CD 16 and 23 to move Fort Bliss into CD 16 and the El Paso General Region.
04:15And again, what I'm trying to do here is compare SB 4 to the engrossed HB 4 that's before us today.
04:22It keeps whole Navarro County, which had previously been split, placing all of Navarro County into CD 6.
04:33It was partially in CD 17.
04:37It also moved Liberty County into CD 9, where it was previously in CD 36.
04:46The House Committee stated their overall intent of the changes was to increase political performance in existing Republican districts from the proposed plan.
05:00A review of the map, again, we're talking about HB 4 engrossed, a review of the map shows that it accomplishes those goals through fairly minor changes.
05:12Nine of the 12 districts affected are Republican-performing districts.
05:18Again, this is relative to SB 4.
05:21Six of which improve their Republican performance in the House substitute.
05:25Those are CDs 2, 8, 9, 17, 22, and 38.
05:31The remaining three Republican districts, CD 6, 14, and 36, slightly decrease Republican performance, but remain 60% plus Trump 2024 districts.
05:49Two out of the three Democrat-performing districts, specifically CD 7 and 29, slightly decrease in political performance for Democrats,
06:00but will still strongly perform for Democrats.
06:06The compactness also stays the same overall, with some slight changes from the SB 4 map.
06:13As a reminder, both SB 4 and HB 4 have five districts that now lean Republican in political performance.
06:23Those five are CD 9, Houston, CD 28 in the RGV, CD 32 in the Dallas region, CD 34 in coastal South Texas.
06:38At this time this morning, I would ask for your favorable consideration of House Bill 4 as engrossed.
06:50This would be the map under Plan C-2333, Charlie-2333.
06:58I believe the changes that it makes are minor relative to SB 4, and that they are consistent with the goals that I've set forth for this legislation.
07:12Those goals include, one, complying with applicable law, two, strengthening Republican congressional performance,
07:22and three, maintaining compact districts.
07:26Now, HB 4 also corrects a concern that was mentioned by witnesses from the El Paso area in one of our previous hearings
07:37and brought up by Senator Blanco about Fort Bliss.
07:42And, again, what HB 4 engrossed does is moves Fort Bliss, or portions of it, the portions they were concerned about,
07:55back into CD 16 as requested by the El Paso constituents in testimony and by Senator Blanco.
08:07So, and with that, Chairman, I'd be happy to take questions.
08:14Thank you, Senator King.
08:16Members, questions?
08:17Yeah.
08:18Senator Alvarado.
08:19Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
08:22Chairman King, you know, this map had some significant changes,
08:27and there was not a public hearing in the House Committee.
08:32There's not one here.
08:34And I'm just going to focus on now what is my congressional district, nine.
08:41It has split up the East End community and has paired us with Liberty.
08:48What we have in common with Liberty, I don't know.
08:51And I don't know how that decision was based, but it seems like, well, no, you said it very plainly.
08:58The goal was to create more opportunity for Republican wins in these districts.
09:04And I just, I wish that especially my folks in the East End would have been able to come and give public testimony.
09:13You talked about one of the goals being to keep districts compact.
09:17But if you look at CD9, by extending all the way out to Liberty, it's not compact.
09:28Can you talk about that a little bit, CD9?
09:33Well, as you mentioned, CD9 moved into Liberty County.
09:40It made it a better-performing Republican district, which was one of the objectives.
09:47From a compactness perspective, and compactness is a couple of different measurements for that.
09:58But even looking at it visibly, it's obviously contiguous.
10:05It still is amazingly more compact than many of the congressional districts that are on this map across the state of Texas.
10:14I can tell you that, as you mentioned, that was not in the original SB4 configuration.
10:22But it still meets the goals that I had for the legislation, and that's why I brought SB4 before us today.
10:29You said one of the other goals was to create more opportunity for Republican wins, right?
10:34Yes, the intent was to improve political performance, specifically for the five congressional districts I mentioned.
10:46And where did you get that idea from?
10:49Well, I think that's been discussed a great deal between all the Republicans in the Senate and in the House.
10:59And it's been discussed by the governor, and it's been in the media.
11:03I think it's been a very prominent issue, even nationally.
11:06Well, it was discussed amongst y'all.
11:09But before that, who put the bug in your ear about that?
11:12I first learned about it probably the same way you did through the media.
11:19And who was quoted?
11:22Well, I heard a number of people quoted.
11:24I've heard congressional members quoted.
11:26I've heard White House officials quoted.
11:30I've heard Governor Abbott quoted.
11:32Speaking of congressional members, did we have any testimony from Republican members of Congress?
11:39No, and I've specifically not, I have not spoken to, and I've said this before,
11:45I have not spoken to anyone in the White House.
11:47I haven't spoken to anyone in the Justice Department.
11:50I haven't spoken to any members of the congressional leadership.
11:57The only two congressional members I've spoken to are ones I talk to all the time,
12:02and those just happen to be my two congressional members and good friends,
12:06and we didn't talk in detail about the map.
12:09Okay.
12:10Well, it seems like in the regular session, nobody was even contemplating this.
12:17Would you agree in the regular session?
12:21I heard discussions of it before we adjourned, before we sine died from the regular session.
12:29When was that?
12:30I would say, I don't know, I think, I really don't remember.
12:36I just remember during maybe the middle of the regular session,
12:39I started hearing some discussion about it in the media and among just Republicans talking.
12:46That's interesting because this is the first time I'm hearing you even mention that.
12:53I mean, because we've talked about it in the hearings, and I don't recall any discussion until President Trump talked about it.
13:05And I don't remember exactly the date of that, but I don't think it was during the regular session.
13:13I could be wrong.
13:14Maybe somebody can check.
13:16Anyway, that's all I have for now.
13:20I'll save the rest.
13:21I'll have more to say tomorrow.
13:24Members, additional comments or questions?
13:26Senator Miles, you're recognized.
13:28Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
13:29Let me ask the obvious question, Mr. Chairman.
13:31Why are we not hearing testimony on the substitute map?
13:34Well, as I mentioned, we've already had testimony from over 200 people on redistricting,
13:39and then we had 43 people testify just the other day on SB4.
13:47However, this is the companion to SB4, and it's been very common practice in the Senate forever that if it's a companion bill
13:58and you've already had a hearing on it and already had a lot of testimony that you do not need to take public testimony again
14:05when you're considering the companion in the committee.
14:11So the parliamentarian has affirmed this, and, again, it's common practice.
14:18We do a lot of times every session when companion bills catch up.
14:24Would you agree, Mr. Chairman, two things?
14:27That, one, this is not an ordinary situation that we're in this redistricting?
14:32I think the process we're taking for redistricting in this special session is the common practice that we have taken
14:45in every redistricting session that I've been a part of.
14:50Okay.
14:51Would you agree that by us voting on a committee substitute on which no testimony can be given
14:57or was given in the House, we are actually shutting out even more constituents from this process?
15:03No, not at all.
15:04As I said, we've had over 200 people testify during the course of, what, the last six weeks or so.
15:10But the substitute is making some changes.
15:13Is that correct?
15:14It is different than the companion SB4.
15:19And would you agree with me that we're not allowing constituents to comment on the differences that you just agreed that we're making?
15:25No, I think anybody, the public portal is still open.
15:30Anyone can still file comments about it, and they can, of course, reach out to us.
15:35And we're just taking the same process that we use all the time on all different types of bills and subject matters
15:43with regard to when a companion bill catches up with the bill filed before the Senate.
15:52Let me move on, Mr. Chairman.
15:53Chairman Hunter insinuated that the public was lucky that hearings on these maps were held at all.
16:01I'm going to quote him.
16:02He said, in quotes, we held three public hearings.
16:06We are not required to hold those hearings.
16:09With redistricting about affecting about 31 million people in this state overwhelmingly without their consent.
16:14Do you agree on that statement, Mr. Chairman?
16:15I think we held six hearings in the Senate.
16:21And with regard to the 2020 redistricting data on which this is based, I think there's been a total of 21 hearings in the Senate over the course of, well, since 2020.
16:35And so I think we've had a tremendous amount of input.
16:41I think we had over 3,800 clicks to the online when we were doing our teleconference hearings.
16:47And then, again, just for SB4 and this special, we had 70-something people, I believe, register to testify.
16:56And we had, I think it was 43, give us testimony on the companion to HB4.
17:03So are you saying that you agree with them or you don't agree with that statement?
17:06No, I think we've had quite a bit of testimony.
17:13So you don't agree with that statement?
17:17Well, I'm not saying whether I agree with it or disagree with it.
17:20I'd have to ask you to read it to me again, and I didn't hear him say that.
17:24I'd be happy to, Mr. Chairman.
17:25Please.
17:26Chairman Hunter stated, we held three public hearings.
17:29We are not required to hold those hearings.
17:32And my question to you was, with redistricting about the fact over 31 million people statewide overwhelmingly with their consent, do you agree with that statement?
17:44I can only speak for the Senate.
17:46I believe we've had a sufficient number of hearings before the Senate.
17:50Sufficient answer.
17:52Mr. Chairman Hunter also stated on yesterday that he consulted with counsel to make sure that this new map was VRA compliant.
18:00You also stated that you wouldn't vote on a map unless the lawyer had told you it was VRA compliant.
18:09Do you still stand by that statement, Mr. Chairman?
18:11I do.
18:12And two more questions, Mr. Chairman.
18:14According to the Texas Legislative Council, as of this moment, 38.6% of those voting age population in District 9 is black.
18:23In newly created District 9, only 10.2% of the voting age population is black.
18:30This is a negative change, Mr. Chairman, of 28.4%.
18:34Does that 28.4% drop in black voting population seem race blind to you?
18:40So I haven't looked at any racial data.
18:42You mentioned citizen voting age population, or CVAP.
18:51I haven't looked at CVAP.
18:53I will tell you that CVAP is not really census data.
18:58CVAP is an annual estimate.
19:00It is very problematic in its accuracy.
19:05But this map is based on 2020 data.
19:10And, again, I haven't looked at racial data myself.
19:13I did ask our council to give HB4 and Gross a very good scrubbing.
19:22They have reported back to me that it complies with all applicable law, which, of course, would include the VRA.
19:29So this is the house map, and you're saying that you didn't look at it, Mr. Chairman, before you brought it to us?
19:37I learned about it probably when you did on Monday, when it was presented.
19:43I learned about the changes then.
19:46And before I took a hard look at it, I asked our council to scrub it and to tell me whether or not it was legally sufficient.
19:56When they did, then I tried to do a deep dive into it, and that deep dive is what I tried to relate in my opening remarks.
20:05Okay.
20:06So just so we're clear on something, Mr. Chairman, a 28.4% drop in black population in the redo of District 9, it's just coincidental.
20:17And you're saying that this is not race-based.
20:19Again, I haven't looked at any racial data, and I have tried very hard to not do anything that was race-based.
20:29Okay.
20:30Let's go on to District 18.
20:31According to alleged council, again, Mr. Chairman, District 18, which hasn't had real representation for almost a year now,
20:39would go from 34% of voting-age population being African-American to 45%.
20:45All of this happening while Hispanic votes-age population dropped 7.7% from 3.9% to 32%,
20:53and the Angle population dropping 4.7% from 19.4% to 14.7%.
21:02Would you agree that it very much looks like, based on the data,
21:07that we are just packing African-American voting into District 18, moving everyone else out?
21:13I can't respond with regard to racial data.
21:17What I can tell you is that I'm told that, or I'm aware that CD 18 should still perform very strong as a Democrat district.
21:28It should.
21:29That's a correct statement, Mr. Chairman.
21:32Senator King, my objection to this racist rigged districting does not change with this new map.
21:40In fact, my opposition gets even stronger, because now it's obvious that we're packing Senate District 18,
21:46and it's obvious that these maps are actually race-blind, as you stated they are.
21:55But now there is literally zero opportunity for the public to have any input in this map.
22:01You break up communities but take no responsibility for them, as my counterpart said.
22:07And I will be given a no vote on this and any other community substitute that comes before this committee, Mr. Chairman.
22:14Thank you for now.
22:17Thank you, Senator Miles.
22:19Senator Alvarado, you're recognized.
22:21I can't let this go.
22:24Mr. Chairman, you mentioned that you heard about this middle of the session.
22:30But if I recall, I think Lieutenant Governor Patrick on sine die talked about, you know, not seeing us till the next regular session.
22:43Governor Abbott has talked about, let's get this all done.
22:47We don't want to go into a special.
22:48And the first reports of anything having to do with this redistricting efforts came on right around June the 9th or 11th.
22:59But you're saying that you heard some talk about this in the middle of the regular session.
23:04So that's just not jiving for me.
23:06I didn't take notes on the dates, and maybe I'm a little bit off, but I seem to remember discussions, maybe even a little bit in the media, but I seem to remember discussions before the session was over.
23:22Maybe I'm wrong.
23:24Maybe I'm thinking about the period between sine die and, you know, the first few weeks of June or something.
23:30But for some reason, I seem to recall having heard discussions, not that I generated, but I seem to have heard discussions during the regular session.
23:39Maybe some of the other senators would remember that as well or remember differently.
23:43I don't know.
23:44I wasn't taking notes.
23:46I wasn't thinking about redistricting at the time, but I think that's when I first started hearing about it.
23:52Well, I mean, I can't obviously speak for you, but I would strongly disagree, because when you laid out the resolution for the rules, you mentioned that the only reason we were doing this, because it was asked, and you said because the governor put it on the call for the special, and then there was some talk, some reference to the DOJ letter.
24:16All of that happened in the special.
24:18There was no mention of any of this in the regular session.
24:23If so, I can't imagine why the governor and lieutenant governor would be talking about not coming back for a special.
24:31Let's get this all done.
24:33And then, you know, here we are.
24:35So I just want to be clear, because when we're talking about making changes to people's congressional representatives, this is a serious topic.
24:44I'm really bothered by this new map, because it's taking my home, my East End community, splitting it, and putting us with Liberty County, and not having any opportunity for the public to come and address this.
25:00And these changes were made just in the last couple of days.
25:04I understand your point.
25:09Where my home is, I think it was during the 1980 redistricting cycle, in which there were a number of court cases and other changes.
25:20I think I went through three state senators without ever moving in a 10-year period.
25:25So I understand.
25:27But that just occurs in redistricting.
25:29When was that you mentioned?
25:31I think that was during the 1980s.
25:32Okay.
25:33But that was probably done in a regular redistricting process, not in mid-decade.
25:39No, I think, well, I mean, it's a long time ago.
25:42I don't remember.
25:42But I remember there were some court cases and things moved from, so during that 10-year period, I changed senators.
25:47During that 10-year period, I changed congressional members without ever moving.
25:54I mean, that's just kind of the nature of redistricting.
25:56And we've talked before about how many times I think we've had changes during the interim in maps.
26:05I believe, I have to go back and look at my notes, but I believe every redistricting cycle is beginning in 1960.
26:12And so my home county is split as well.
26:19And that's just part of trying to meet the one-person, one-vote population requirement as well.
26:26And I wrote down those years that you mentioned.
26:31There were quite a few.
26:32But that has been driven by mainly court cases, not because whoever was in the White House said they needed more congressional districts of their party.
26:47It's a big difference.
26:49Well, no, in 2003, it was because the Republicans took a majority in the House for the first time since, well, in the legislature for the first time since 1870.
27:04And we did redistricting at that time in 2003.
27:10Wasn't that because the courts did it, and then so you wanted to come back and have the legislature do it?
27:15No, in 2003, we did the legislature because you had a Republican Senate, a Democrat House, and a Republican governor.
27:24They were unable to pass a House, Senate, or congressional map in 2001.
27:29The redistricting board drew the House and Senate map in the 2002 elections.
27:37Again, for the first time, I think, since the 1870s, the Democrats lost control of redistricting.
27:42And in 2003, in a special session, Governor Perry put congressional redistricting on the call, and we took it up.
27:57And I think we went through three special sessions because the Democrats left the state again then as well and produced a congressional map.
28:05Okay, well, from what I'm being told, and what I'm just reading back, it seemed like it was following the court case and legislature coming back with the new...
28:22We just had not done any congressional redistricting in 2001 and tried to do state, Senate, and House, and were unable to pass a bill.
28:34And so the redistricting board, again, took up House and Senate, and then we did congressional in 2003 because we hadn't done it in 2001.
28:44And was there, was that, did that come from the White House, whoever was in power, or was that something the state leadership and the legislature decided?
28:58I don't recall.
28:59I just recall it being put on the call.
29:02Okay.
29:03So right now, as it stands, in Congress, there are 25 Republicans and 13 Democrats, right?
29:11Yes, as part of the Texas delegation.
29:13Okay.
29:14And you said that one of the objectives was to create more Republican congressional districts.
29:20Why did you feel that was important?
29:25I always feel that's important.
29:28Okay, because now it's going from 30 to 8.
29:30I'm just saying, you know, when is enough enough?
29:33Are you asking me personally?
29:34I am very proud of the work that the U.S. House has done and the President and the U.S. Senate over these past eight months now.
29:50I was very concerned and disturbed with what was done during the Biden administration.
29:56And I'm very concerned that if the Republicans lost the majority in the U.S. House, that the two years following the midterms could be very harmful to Texas and to the United States.
30:12And so I want us to maintain a Republican majority and hopefully increase a Republican majority in the U.S. Congress.
30:20And that's my purpose for being willing to carry this map.
30:24Well, I think all the work that the Trump administration has been doing, I think all of those issues and policies and bills should stand on their own and let the American people make those decisions and not this rig districting.
30:45Thank you, Senator Alvarado.
30:46Senator Hanna Hossa, you're recognized.
30:50Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
30:50And I just have several points and questions, points of clarification.
30:56I know Senator Miles asked, it wasn't clear, but the changes that were made in Senate Bill 4 by House Bill 4 in those congressional districts,
31:09those voters didn't have a chance to express their opinion after the changes were made.
31:15There was no public hearings on that point.
31:20So as far as the Senate, this is the hearing that we're having today is the only hearing on HB 4 engrossed before the Senate.
31:32However, it's the companion to SB 4, and we've had a previous public hearing with public testimony on SB 4.
31:42But we haven't had any on this side, on the Senate side.
31:46I know that it gets over-explained, but the point is that I'm trying to make is there was no public feedback or no public testimony on the changes that were made to those congressional districts that came across from the House on House Bill 4 as compared to Senate Bill 4.
32:04My only answer, sir, is that we're following standard Senate process in dealing with a companion bill when it catches up to the Senate bill.
32:18And I understand that, but I mean, it's just a pretty simple question.
32:21I mean, no, we didn't have any hearings.
32:22Pretty much, pretty much, on this changes we made on our Senate bill from House Bill 4.
32:28I understand.
32:30The other one is there seems to be a contradiction between the three goals that you stated as it relates to improving Republican performance and then keeping communities of interest compact.
32:47And the reason I say that is because I look in Hidalgo County, which that's where I live, in McAllen, you look at Congressional District 15, Congressional District 28, you cut Hidalgo County in half.
33:03Not only that, you separate Edinburgh, the university, from the city of McAllen.
33:07Even DHR, that was hospital, which has part of the hospital is in McAllen, the other half is in Edinburgh, it's split.
33:17And if you look at this, and if you look, you split the city of Farr and the hospital four.
33:27Farr and San Juan Alamo, which is one school district, it's split in half.
33:31So how does that compare to how to keep community of interest compact?
33:34Well, first off, you know, if you look at the existing Congressional map or the House and Senate map in trying to do one person, one vote,
33:45it's inevitable that a lot of cities and counties are divided in school districts.
33:52For one reason, cities and counties and school districts don't all share the same boundaries, naturally.
33:56But, you know, compactness has to, communities of interest has to do with a lot more than just geography.
34:06Communities of interest, as you mentioned, can be a city, they can be an historic neighborhood,
34:10they can be a school district, but they can also be a water district, they can also be a water basin,
34:16they can be a transportation district, they can be an economic district of some sort.
34:20Or they can be any number of things that draw people together in common.
34:31You know, I guess I use my home district, my district stretches all the way from far east Tarrant County out into west Texas.
34:43And some of those counties have 4,000 people, one of them does, 4,000, another one has just 10,000,
34:51and then I have Tarrant County that's a large metropolitan area, yet they share the same transportation district.
35:02They have two water basins that, river basins that provide the water for most of the entire area that have to work together.
35:12They're in the same TxDOT region, I believe they're in the same DPS region.
35:17Actually, they share two TxDOT regions.
35:20Their economic driver is the same for most of the district, all coming out of the Metroplex area.
35:28So there's a lot of things that create communities of interest,
35:33besides just the geography of a county or a city or a school district.
35:38Well, all the factors you mentioned are being violated in the way that O'Connor was being split.
35:47And the communities that I know and I live in all my life, McAllen, I split it from Edinburgh.
35:52You split the Potsdam-Won Island School District.
35:55It's one school district, and it's split in half.
35:57So those are very important to our community, and keeping those communities of interest,
36:03because Congressional 15 goes all the way up to almost San Antonio.
36:09The other one happens to be Corpus Christi, Nueces County.
36:13There's another county which has been completely split.
36:20If you look at some of the neighborhoods, you have-
36:22Which district are you going to?
36:24That's the District 34, and-
36:33Yeah.
36:33I'm up with you now.
36:35That district is also split, and part of the district runs all the way up to San Antonio.
36:43And you split the Hillcrest, black historical community.
36:49You split the Port of Corpus Christi, who was an economic driver that you mentioned a while ago,
36:54from the university.
36:55So it splits all these communities.
36:59They have no relationship to the way the congressional districts are drawn.
37:06They go way up north or way into rural counties that do not have committee of interest,
37:15semi-canonic drivers, or the same historical routes.
37:20So those are issues that I think are very important to my congressional districts,
37:29that now we have to sort of get to know different congressional congressmen and the congressperson.
37:37I mean, I know the district as well as the one that was previously there.
37:41So those are very important factors to consider,
37:45because my constituents are what I call, they require a lot of help.
37:52They require a lot of assistance.
37:53So this, the way the map is drawn from South Texas is not very in the best interest of my community.
38:03That's my comment.
38:04I understand. Thank you.
38:09Thank you, Senator Hinojoso.
38:11Senator Molls, you're recognized.
38:12Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
38:14Senator King,
38:15We established previous conversations in previous meetings that the Republican Redistricting Committee is the one who drew our map.
38:27We established that, correct?
38:29I don't know that they had any...
38:32You spoke on that previously.
38:34Are you talking about SB4 or HP4 engrossed?
38:38SB4.
38:39SB4.
38:39Yes, we had talked about that they had...
38:41Well, so again, I understand they were involved in that.
38:48I wasn't involved in that process with them.
38:52I adopted and filed the house map when it became stalled in the house.
38:59And so I don't have all the history on how it was drafted.
39:05So let's check off.
39:06You established a house map, and that's what you filed, correct?
39:09When the house map stalled in the house,
39:11I picked it up and filed it in the Senate as a companion.
39:16In previous conversation on SB4,
39:18we had conversation on this diocese
39:20that the Republican Redistricting Committee is the one who we're referring to to draw the map, correct?
39:28Okay.
39:28It's my understanding that they were involved in the drafting of the original HP4.
39:33Okay.
39:35Have we heard back from the DOJ, Mr. Chairman?
39:37No.
39:38I haven't talked to anyone with the DOJ.
39:40Okay.
39:41And do you understand, Mr. Chairman, that when black folks and minorities tend to lean Democratic,
39:47do you agree with me on that statement?
39:51For the most part?
39:53I don't know how to answer that.
39:56I hope that people look at issues, and I will just say that I can tell you on the map before us
40:12whether these historically will have been Democrat or Republican in performance,
40:20but I don't want to speak about someone's political preference based on race.
40:27So you have no idea that black and minorities tend to lean democratically?
40:39So I just want to say that I do not want to take racial data into consideration in my promotion of this map.
40:52And what I have looked at and what I'm considering is how areas have historically voted,
41:00and I can tell you in any one of these districts whether I think they'll perform strong or weak or split to Republican and Democrat.
41:09Well, if you don't want to take that position, then let me make it clear that it is impossible,
41:15it's impossible based on the statement that you made that you drew the map
41:21and you're proud that you've drawn the map for more Republican congressional seats,
41:27is what you said to my colleague Alvarado just earlier,
41:31that you're proud of that for more Republican seats.
41:34So knowing what I know and knowing what is obvious that minorities and African-American vote democratically,
41:42it's simply impossible to draw those maps race blind that you have done.
41:49It's simply impossible.
41:50Knowing and making the statement that you're proud of the fact that you've drawn more Republican seats in the state of Texas,
41:58okay, but the fact knowing that African-Americans and minorities lean democratically,
42:04it's simply impossible, Mr. Chairman, impossible, to have drawn these maps race blind.
42:11And I close.
42:12If I may respond, Chairman.
42:14Senator King.
42:15It's actually incredibly easy to draw a map when you don't take race into consideration
42:21and when you're just trying to meet one person, one vote,
42:24and look at Republican and Democrat voting patterns.
42:28It's really very easy to draft a map.
42:31And frankly, if I'd really wanted to sit down and draw one,
42:34I could have drawn one that elected more Republican seats probably.
42:37May I respond to that?
42:38Senator Mahal.
42:39If I can respond to that, if you're taking voting patterns into place,
42:43then you know that minorities and African-Americans vote Democratic
42:47if you're taking voting patterns into consideration.
42:49All I'm saying is you don't have to look at race to draw a legal map that meets partisan objectives.
43:02Well, if you say you can do that, Mr. Chairman, I find it awful funny that you didn't draw a map.
43:08You just took the House map.
43:09I took the House map because it met the objectives that I had for a map.
43:20Which is to gain more Republican seats.
43:21I understand, Mr. Chairman.
43:22Members, any other questions or comments?
43:24Okay, at this time, members, we'll take a vote on House Bill 4.
43:33Senator Parker moves that House Bill 4 be reported favorably to the full Senate
43:39with a recommendation that it do pass and be ordered, not printed.
43:45The clerk will call the roll.
43:47Senator Alvarado.
43:48No.
43:49Senator Hinojosa.
43:51Nay.
43:52Senator Hughes.
43:52Yes.
43:53Senator Miles.
43:54Not no, but hell no.
43:56Senator Parker.
43:58Aye.
43:58Senator Paxson.
44:00Senator Sparks.
44:01Aye.
44:02Senator Creighton.
44:02Aye.
44:03Senator King.
44:04Aye.
44:05It's five to three, one absent.
44:07There being five ayes, three nays, and one absent, House Bill 4 will be reported to the full Senate
44:14with a favorable recommendation.
44:19Thank you, members.
44:20I'll pass the gavel back to you, Chairman King.
44:22Members, is there any other business to come before the committee?
44:26Hearing none, Senator Creighton moves that the committee stand at recess, subject to the call
44:32of the chair.
44:33Thank you, everyone.
44:34Aye.
44:45Aye.
Be the first to comment