High Plains Report

"This is Robert Duncan, your state Senator for West Texas.  On Monday, April 16, the Senate passed legislation that will be very significant for Texas and West Texas.  Senator Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio - a Texas Tech law school graduate by the way - passed legislation that would require congressional redistricting to be determined by a bipartisan panel appointed by the House, Senate and the Governor's office.  That bill, if passed, will take the contentious redistricting issue out of the highly charged partisan environment of the Texas Legislature, and move it to a commission that can make decisions based more on the science of redistricting than the purely political trade-offs.  While it is not perfect, it is certainly a step in the right direction. 

Typically, every 10 years, when we do redistricting, the House and Senate in the become embroiled in a very time consuming debate that impairs our ability to take care of other important state business.  While we will continue under this bill to do the redistricting plans for the Texas Senate and the Texas House, moving the congressional redistricting to a commission will free the Legislature up to take care of the most important business of the state.  That is taking care of those who need help from government services, as well as ensuring we are prudent and efficient in the way we spend tax dollars. 

Many of you will recall that in 2003, we had a very contentious debate involving many special sessions, broken quorums, and members leaving the state with regard to congressional redistricting.  This bill should help the Legislature avoid those situations in the future. 

To protect rural interests, Senator Wentworth kindly accepted an amendment that I offered to provide for a rural representative on the redistricting panel.  The purpose of that, of course, is to protect the rural interest in the congressional delegation. 

Texas is largely a rural state.  Most of our population, however, resides in the urban areas.  Nevertheless, most of our natural resources exist in rural areas.  Texas needs strong rural representation in Congress to ensure our natural resources are properly preserved and can continue to be the source of great economic wealth to our state. 

Many of you know that agricultural is the second leading contributor to the state's gross  product.  We need to make sure our congressional delegation recognizes and reflects that strength of our economy.  I believe this commission will provide a better way to do this.

This legislation is probably not real popular from a partisan standpoint.  The Democratic Party and the Republican Party would probably oppose this proposal on a fundamental nature.  However, from a practical sense and as it represents the every day Texan, this proposal makes a lot of sense.  

This is Senator Robert Duncan.  Thank you for your interest in the Texas Legislature."