Good morning, 

Hope everyone is staying warm today, as record low temperatures sweep the state.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens 

Monday, February 15, 2021
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• The state legislature is constitutionally-obligated to do just a few things. Among those responsibilities is redrawing legislative maps.
   
• Redistricting, performed every ten years, is the process by which state lawmakers redraw representative district boundaries. These districts span the federal to local levels and include the jurisdictions of 31 state senators, 150 state representatives, U.S. representatives, State Board of Education members, the state judiciary, some local city council districts, county commissioner courts, and school district boards.
   
• In order to draw those maps, however, lawmakers rely on demographic information provided by the federal decennial census.
   
• Another delay in census data being released could push back the redistricting process even further, setting up a potential special session of the Texas Legislature...

• Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau announced it would deliver the data to all states by September 30, well past the Legislature’s scheduled May 31 adjournment, due to "COVID-19-related delays."
   

• Additionally, the Census Bureau noted that all states would receive their data at once, a departure from the flow basis used in years prior.

• What does this mean for Texas? The state faces a few options:
   
  • A special legislative session by the governor.
     
  • The convening of a legislative redistricting board composed of five members, which include the lieutenant governor and speaker of the House.
     
  • Deferring to the courts to determine approved maps.
     

• Due to an increase in population, Texas is expected to gain new congressional seats. Though the seats in the Texas Legislature remain the same, those districts will have to be redrawn as well, due to shifts in the population.
   

• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick jokingly suggested last week that the Senate could be in session until October. With the most recent delay from the Census Bureau, that could indeed be the likely outcome.
   

• For more information on redistricting, read Texas Scorecard’s recently published explainer on the topic.

Please join me in wishing a [belated] happy birthday to our new education reporter, Tera Collum!

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