4 Aggies serving on Texas’ redistricting committees

The last day of the 87th Legislative Session, known as sine die, will occur on Monday, May 31. This is set by the Texas Constitution, which limits the regular session to a mere 140 days.

A competing requirement, however, will guarantee at least one special session. The United States Constitution requires an apportionment of federal representatives among the states every 10 years. Currently set at 435 representatives, these positions are allocated among the states based on population counts from the most recent Census.

In practical terms, this means that all 50 state legislatures will be tasked with determining how its allocation of representatives will be districted. Using the population count from the 2020 Census, these districts must be set in time for the 2022 mid-term elections.

Special sessions may be called by proclamation of the Texas governor to convene the Texas Legislature for work not completed in the regular session. Because full detailed population data from the 2020 Census will not be available until after sine die, it is already known that Texas will require at least one special session in 2021 to comply with this constitutional requirement.

The U.S. Census Bureau released preliminary population data on April 26, revealing that Texas would gain two additional federal representatives in the 2022 election to keep up with the state’s growing population. In a special session, the Texas Legislature will undergo the complex task of “redistricting,” determining the boundaries of each of the 38 congressional districts Texas will house. In addition to the congressional districts, the Legislature will redistrict the state’s 31 Senate districts and 150 House districts.

The House and Senate committees for this important function have been named, and the Aggie Network is well-represented! We thank Reps. Ryan Guillen ’00, Brooks Landgraf ’03, and Andrew Murr ’99, along with Sen. Paul Bettencourt ’80 for their work on these committees.

Read more about Texas’ redistricting process here.