| |
| |
|
|
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
|
|
|
AN ACT
|
|
|
relating to the composition of districts for the election of |
|
|
members of the United States House of Representatives. |
|
|
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
|
|
SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to fulfill the |
|
|
legislature's duty to redraw the districts for the election of the |
|
|
members of the United States House of Representatives elected from |
|
|
this state in compliance with the United States and Texas |
|
|
Constitutions and applicable federal law following the publication |
|
|
of the 2020 federal decennial census and the decennial |
|
|
reapportionment of representative districts among the states. |
|
|
SECTION 2. The districts from which the members of the |
|
|
United States House of Representatives are elected are the |
|
|
districts as provided by law and used for the election of the |
|
|
members of the House of Representatives of the 117th Congress of the |
|
|
United States except as those districts are changed by Section 3 of |
|
|
this Act. |
|
|
SECTION 3. (a) Angelina County is transferred from |
|
|
Congressional District 1 to Congressional District 8. |
|
|
(b) Gillespie County is transferred from Congressional |
|
|
District 21 to Congressional District 11. |
|
|
(c) The portion of Congressional District 19 located in |
|
|
Floyd County is transferred to Congressional District 13. |
|
|
(d) Bexar County Precinct 4036 is transferred from |
|
|
Congressional District 23 to Congressional District 35. |
|
|
SECTION 4. In this Act, "tract," "block group," and "block" |
|
|
mean the geographic areas identified by those terms on the 2010 |
|
|
Census TIGER/Line Shapefiles, prepared by the federal Bureau of the |
|
|
Census for the Twenty-third Decennial Census of the United States, |
|
|
enumerated as of April 1, 2010. |
|
|
SECTION 5. It is the intention of the Texas Legislature |
|
|
that, if any county, tract, block group, block, or other geographic |
|
|
area has erroneously been left out of this Act, a court reviewing |
|
|
this Act should include that area in the appropriate district in |
|
|
accordance with the intent of the legislature, using any available |
|
|
evidence of that intent, including evidence such as that used by the |
|
|
Supreme Court of Texas in Smith v. Patterson, 111 Tex. 535, 242 S.W. |
|
|
749 (1922). |
|
|
SECTION 6. (a) This Act supersedes all previous enactments |
|
|
or orders adopting districts for the United States House of |
|
|
Representatives. All previous acts of the legislature adopting |
|
|
districts for the United States House of Representatives are |
|
|
repealed. |
|
|
(b) Chapter 3 (S.B. 4), Acts of the 83rd Legislature, 1st |
|
|
Called Session, 2013, is repealed. |
|
|
SECTION 7. The districts established in this Act apply to |
|
|
the election of the members of the United States House of |
|
|
Representatives beginning with the primary and general elections in |
|
|
2022 for members of the 118th Congress of the United States. This |
|
|
Act does not affect the membership or districts of the United States |
|
|
House of Representatives for the 117th Congress of the United |
|
|
States. |
|
|
SECTION 8. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives |
|
|
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as |
|
|
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this |
|
|
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this |
|
|
Act takes effect September 1, 2021. |