AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The Texas Senate and House congressional redistricting committees will meet separately Monday afternoon to hear public testimony about redrawing district lines.
The Senate committee will meet at the Capitol at 3 p.m., but public testimony will only be delivered virtually. The committee, chaired by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, will discuss the Harris County area and East Texas, but will hear testimony about any area of the state.
Those hoping to testify before the committee had to register 12 hours before the start time, but written comments can still be submitted.
While the Senate opted for virtual hearings, the House chose to have in-person hearings at multiple locations across the state. The House committee, chaired by Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, will hold a public hearing Monday at 5 p.m. in Arlington, Texas. The committee recently held hearings in Austin and Houston.
The hearing in Arlington will focus on counties located in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 24th, 25th, 26th, 30th, 32nd and 33rd congressional districts, but lawmakers will accept testimony about any area of the state. The hearing will take place at The University of Texas at Arlington’s Rosebud Theatre.
Witnesses have two minutes to speak, and testimony will go for up to five hours.
The hearings are part of the ongoing debate over whether legislators should redraw Texas’ congressional districts. The process began after President Donald Trump pushed for Republicans to redraw districts mid-decade to give the party a better chance to keep the US House in 2026.
Former Texas State Rep. Burt Solomons authored a guest essay in The New York Times Friday, arguing that as a former chairman of the redistricting committee during regularly scheduled 2011 redistricting, current actions cross a line that should not be crossed.
“What Mr. Trump wants my former colleagues to do — redistricting now, years ahead of the usual once-per-decade time frame — would erode the public’s already flagging trust in government,” Solomons wrote. “The legislature should stand up against it. The president should stay out of it.”
In an interview with KXAN, Solomons said drawing new maps mid-decade is “not the right thing to do.” He also took issue with the letter sent to Texas by the US Department of Justice, which said Texas had racially discriminated when drawing its current maps — something the state had previously defended in attacks from Democrats and in legal challenges.
Solomons said the idea that Texas would now accept that its maps were racially discriminatory is “hypocrisy at its best.”
While Democrats have questioned Republicans at hearings about the redistricting plan, Republicans have not rushed to defend the plan, saying they are simply taking up an issue that the Governor asked them to.
Lawmakers have until the end of special session, which began July 21 and can last for up to 30 days, to decide if they will pass new congressional maps.