I 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7095 

To require States to carry out congressional redistricting in accordance with 

a process under which members of the public are informed of redistricting 

proposals and have the opportunity to participate in the development 

of such proposals prior to their adoption, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 25, 2024 

Ms. ROSS (for herself, Mr. NICKEL, Ms. MANNING, Mr. JACKSON of North 

Carolina, Mrs. FOUSHEE, Ms. ADAMS, and Mr. DAVIS of North Carolina) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 

Judiciary 

A BILL 

To require States to carry out congressional redistricting 

in accordance with a process under which members of 

the public are informed of redistricting proposals and 

have the opportunity to participate in the development 

of such proposals prior to their adoption, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
2 

•HR 7095 IH

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDING OF CONSTITUTIONAL 

2 AUTHORITY. 

3 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

4 ‘‘Redistricting Transparency and Accountability Act of 

5 2024’’. 

6 (b) FINDING.—Congress finds that it has the author7 ity to require States to follow certain procedures in car8 rying out congressional redistricting after an apportion9 ment of Members of the House of Representatives be10 cause— 

11 (1) the authority granted to Congress under ar12 ticle I, section 4 of the Constitution of the United 

13 States gives Congress the power to enact laws gov14 erning the time, place, and manner of elections for 

15 Members of the House of Representatives; and 

16 (2) the authority granted to Congress under 

17 section 5 of the fourteenth amendment to the Con18 stitution gives Congress the power to enact laws to 

19 enforce section 2 of such amendment, which requires 

20 Representatives to be apportioned among the several 

21 States according to the number of whole persons in 

22 each State. 

23 SEC. 2. REQUIRING REDISTRICTING TO BE CONDUCTED 

24 UNDER PROCEDURES PROVIDING OPPOR25 TUNITY FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. 

26 (a) REQUIREMENT.— 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
3 

•HR 7095 IH

1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 

2 provision of law, any congressional redistricting con3 ducted by a State shall be conducted in accordance 

4 with a process under which the entity responsible for 

5 developing congressional redistricting plans in the 

6 State (hereafter in this Act referred to as the ‘‘State 

7 redistricting entity’’)— 

8 (A) in accordance with section 3, estab9 lishes and operates an internet site; 

10 (B) in accordance with section 4, provides 

11 opportunities for participation by members of 

12 the public in the initial development of such 

13 plans; and 

14 (C) in accordance with section 5, notifies 

15 members of the public regarding the proposed 

16 final congressional redistricting plan and pro17 vides opportunities for members of the public to 

18 respond to the plan. 

19 (2) TREATMENT OF SUBORDINATE ENTITIES.— 

20 Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the re21 quirements of this Act shall apply with respect to 

22 any entity which is subordinate to the entity respon23 sible for the final adoption of a congressional redis24 tricting plan under State law, including any commis25 sion, board, committee, or subcommittee responsible 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
4 

•HR 7095 IH

1 under State law for performing certain functions on 

2 behalf of such entity in conjunction with the develop3 ment and adoption of the plan for the State, in the 

4 same manner as such requirements apply with re5 spect to the State redistricting entity. 

6 (3) OTHER PROCEDURES PERMITTED.—Noth7 ing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act 

8 may be construed to prohibit a State from con9 ducting congressional redistricting in accordance 

10 with such procedures as the State considers appro11 priate, to the extent that such procedures are con12 sistent with the applicable requirements of this Act 

13 and the amendments made by this Act. 

14 (4) NO EFFECT ON REDISTRICTING FOR STATE

15 OR LOCAL ELECTIONS.—Nothing in this Act or the 

16 amendments made by this Act may be construed to 

17 affect any procedures a State or a unit of local gov18 ernment in a State may use to conduct redistricting 

19 with respect to elections for State or local offices. 

20 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 22(c) of 

21 the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for the fifteenth and 

22 subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for an ap23 portionment of Representatives in Congress’’, approved 

24 June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a(c)), is amended by striking 

25 ‘‘in the manner provided by the law thereof’’ and insertVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:00 Jan 31, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7095.IH H7095

kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
5 

•HR 7095 IH

1 ing: ‘‘in a manner consistent with the requirements of the 

2 Redistricting Transparency and Accountability Act of 

3 2024’’. 

4 SEC. 3. PUBLIC INTERNET SITE FOR STATE REDISTRICTING 

5 ENTITY. 

6 (a) ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF SITE.— 

7 Each State redistricting entity shall establish and main8 tain a public internet site which meets the following min9 imum requirements: 

10 (1) The site provides general information about 

11 the congressional redistricting process, including in12 formation on— 

13 (A) applicable legal requirements; and 

14 (B) any redistricting principles or policies 

15 that the State redistricting entity will use in 

16 creating or evaluating congressional redis17 tricting plans. 

18 (2) The site is updated continuously to provide 

19 timely advance notice of meetings held by the entity 

20 and to otherwise provide information on the activi21 ties of the entity and any subordinate entity de22 scribed in section 2(a)(2). 

23 (3) The site provides access to all congressional 

24 redistricting plans or district maps submitted by any 

25 person or entity as part of the redistricting process. 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
6 

•HR 7095 IH

1 (4) The site provides members of the public 

2 with no-cost access to easily assessable digital files 

3 containing the block equivalency, shapefiles, and de4 mographic and election data needed for analysis, 

5 evaluation, or creation of proposed redistricting 

6 plans, including assessment of a plan’s partisan per7 formance and compliance with the Voting Rights Act 

8 of 1965 and other applicable legal requirements. 

9 (5) The site permits any individual to submit, 

10 view, and search comments on proposed redistricting 

11 plans, and to submit questions, comments, and other 

12 information with respect to the entity’s activities. 

13 (6) The site permits members of the public to 

14 watch, in both live and archival formats, and review 

15 transcripts of, any public hearings or meetings of 

16 the State redistricting entity. 

17 (7) The site includes any other information the 

18 entity is required to make public under this Act or 

19 other applicable law. 

20 (b) DEADLINE FOR POSTING OF COMMENTS SUB21 MITTED BY PUBLIC.—The State redistricting entity shall 

22 ensure that any oral or written comment relating to Con23 gressional redistricting in the State which is submitted by 

24 a member of the public to the State redistricting agency, 

25 including a comment on any plan proposed by the entity 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
7 

•HR 7095 IH

1 or any other person, is made available on the site not later 

2 than 72 hours after submission. 

3 (c) UPDATING OF INFORMATION.—The State redis4 tricting entity shall take all actions necessary to ensure 

5 that the site established under this section is updated con6 tinuously to provide timely advance notice of the entity’s 

7 meetings and to otherwise provide timely information on 

8 the entity’s activities. 

9 (d) MULTIPLE LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS.—All of 

10 the information which is described in paragraphs (1), (2), 

11 and (6) of subsection (a) this section shall be posted and 

12 published in any language in which the State (or any juris13 diction in the State) is required to provide election mate14 rials under section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 

15 (52 U.S.C. 10503). 

16 (e) DEADLINE; PRESERVATION OF INFORMATION.— 

17 (1) DEADLINE.—The State redistricting entity 

18 shall establish the internet site required under this 

19 section not later than August 1 of the year in which 

20 the regular decennial census is conducted. 

21 (2) PRESERVATION OF INFORMATION.—All in22 formation on the internet site established under this 

23 section with respect to a congressional redistricting 

24 plan shall be preserved in an accessible format for 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
8 

•HR 7095 IH

1 a period of not less than 10 years following adoption 

2 of the plan. 

3 SEC. 4. PUBLIC HEARINGS AND OTHER OPPORTUNITIES 

4 FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN INITIAL DE5 VELOPMENT OF CONGRESSIONAL REDIS6 TRICTING PLANS. 

7 (a) REQUIREMENTS FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS.— 

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—To ensure that development 

9 of the State’s congressional redistricting plan is in10 formed by public input, the State redistricting entity 

11 shall hold hearings before and after the development 

12 of any proposed congressional redistricting plans. 

13 Such hearings— 

14 (A) shall be held in different regions of the 

15 State, with an option for participants to partici16 pate virtually, and shall be streamed live on the 

17 public internet site maintained by the State re18 districting entity under section 3; and 

19 (B) shall be sufficient in number, sched20 uled at times and places, and noticed and con21 ducted in a manner to ensure that all members 

22 of the public, including members of racial, eth23 nic, and language minorities protected under 

24 the Voting Rights Act of 1965, have a meaning25 ful opportunity to attend and provide input 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
9 

•HR 7095 IH

1 both before and after the entity releases pro2 posed plans, including— 

3 (i) comments on the criteria the entity 

4 will use to develop the plans; 

5 (ii) the content of the plans; and 

6 (iii) any other issues relating to con7 gressional redistricting in the State. 

8 (2) DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION OF SCHED9 ULE.— 

10 (A) INITIAL PROPOSED SCHEDULE.—Prior 

11 to conducting hearings under this section, the 

12 State redistricting entity shall develop and pub13 lish a proposed schedule of hearings that it de14 termines are sufficient in number to ensure 

15 that persons in all parts of the State, including 

16 members of racial, ethnic, and language minori17 ties protected under the Voting Rights Act of 

18 1965, have a meaningful opportunity to provide 

19 input and comments regarding the contents of 

20 redistricting plans for the State, except that the 

21 number of hearings under the proposed sched22 ule may not be fewer than three. 

23 (B) PUBLIC RESPONSE TO PROPOSED

24 SCHEDULE.—Following publication of the pro25 posed schedule of hearings under subparagraph 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
10 

•HR 7095 IH

1 (A), members of the public shall have a period 

2 of not less than ten days to comment on the 

3 number of proposed hearings, their dates, 

4 times, and locations, and the processes by which 

5 the State redistricting entity proposes to pro6 vide notice of such hearings and ensure that the 

7 hearings are equally open to all members of the 

8 communities where the hearings are to take 

9 place. 

10 (C) PUBLICATION OF FINAL SCHEDULE; 

11 OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADDITIONAL HEARINGS.— 

12 After giving due consideration to any comments 

13 received under subparagraph (B), the State re14 districting entity shall publish a final schedule 

15 of hearings under this section, except that noth16 ing in this paragraph may be construed to pro17 hibit the entity from holdings additional hear18 ings under this section if the entity determines 

19 that additional hearings are necessary to enable 

20 the entity to obtain the information it needs to 

21 obtain sufficient public input on proposed redis22 tricting plans. 

23 (b) OTHER OPPORTUNITIES FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPA24 TION.—Beginning on the date the State receives the notice 

25 of the number of Representatives to which the State is 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
11 

•HR 7095 IH

1 entitled in the following Congress under section 22(b) of 

2 the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to provide for the fifteenth and 

3 subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for an ap4 portionment of Representatives in Congress’’, approved 

5 June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a), and continuing for not fewer 

6 than 60 days thereafter, the State redistricting entity shall 

7 solicit the input of members of the public in its work to 

8 develop proposed congressional redistricting plans for the 

9 State by carrying out the following activities: 

10 (1) Posting on the internet site established 

11 under section 3 the criteria which the entity will use 

12 to develop the congressional redistricting plan for 

13 the State. 

14 (2) Posting on the internet site established 

15 under section 3 a link to a video recording of each 

16 such hearing not later than 24 hours after the con17 clusion of the hearing and posting on the site a 

18 searchable version of the transcript of each such 

19 hearing not later than 5 days after the conclusion of 

20 the hearing. 

21 (3) Engaging in outreach to provide informa22 tion to and encourage participation in the redis23 tricting process by communities with limited access 

24 to the internet or who may be difficult to reach 

25 through English-language media. 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
12 

•HR 7095 IH

1 SEC. 5. NOTIFICATION OF CONGRESSIONAL REDIS2 TRICTING PLAN PROPOSED TO BE ADOPTED 

3 BY REDISTRICTING ENTITY; OPPORTUNITIES 

4 FOR PUBLIC TO RESPOND. 

5 (a) NOTICE OF PROPOSED FINAL PLAN.—Not later 

6 than 10 days prior to holding a final vote on the adoption 

7 of a final congressional redistricting plan for the State, 

8 the State redistricting entity shall post information about 

9 the plan on the internet site established under section 3, 

10 including at a minimum the following: 

11 (1) An analysis of the proposed final plan, in12 cluding— 

13 (A) a map showing each congressional dis14 trict established under the plan, together with 

15 easily accessible digital files containing the 

16 block equivalency and shapefiles for each such 

17 district; 

18 (B) a statement of the total population, 

19 the voting age population, and citizen popu20 lation of each such district, broken down by 

21 race and membership in a language minority 

22 group ; and 

23 (C) a statement of the number of reg24 istered voters in each such district, broken 

25 down by political party affiliation to the extent 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
13 

•HR 7095 IH

1 that such information is available under State 

2 law; 

3 (D) a statement of the results in each such 

4 district for all statewide elections conducted in 

5 the State in the 6 years preceding the year in 

6 which the most recent decennial census was 

7 conducted; 

8 (E) an analysis of the plan’s compliance 

9 with applicable laws, including the Voting 

10 Rights Act of 1965; 

11 (F) an assessment of the partisan fairness 

12 of the plan under one or more standard quan13 titative measures of partisan bias; 

14 (G) a statement identifying all individuals 

15 and entities responsible for the drafting of, or 

16 who were consulted in conjunction with drafting 

17 of, the plan; and 

18 (H) a statement describing any changes 

19 made to the plan in response to input from 

20 members of the public. 

21 (2) A statement explaining the entity’s reasons 

22 for adopting the proposed final plan and the reasons 

23 why the adoption of the plan, as opposed to the 

24 adoption of alternative plans, will best serve the pub25 lic interest, together with an assessment of how the 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
14 

•HR 7095 IH

1 plan is consistent with the policies described in sec2 tion 3(a)(1). 

3 (3) Any dissenting statement of any member of 

4 the entity who did not approve the proposed final 

5 plan. 

6 (4) A statement that members of the public 

7 may submit comments regarding the proposed final 

8 plan through the internet site, together with infor9 mation on how members of the public may submit 

10 such comments to the entity through other methods. 

11 (b) PUBLIC HEARING PRIOR TO ADOPTION OF FINAL

12 PLAN.— 

13 (1) MANDATORY PUBLIC HEARING.—Not later 

14 than 7 days prior to holding a final vote on the 

15 adoption of the final congressional redistricting plan 

16 for the State, the State redistricting entity shall hold 

17 hearings in accordance with the requirements of sec18 tion 4 at which members of the public may provide 

19 comments on the plan. 

20 (2) VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPTS OF HEARINGS.— 

21 The entity shall post a link to a video recording of 

22 each such hearing on the internet site established 

23 under section 3 immediately following the conclusion 

24 of the hearing, and shall publish and post on such 

25 website a searchable version of a transcript of the 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
15 

•HR 7095 IH

1 hearing not later than 48 hours after the conclusion 

2 of the hearing. 

3 (c) TREATMENT OF AMENDED AND NEW PLANS.— 

4 If the State redistricting entity posts an amended version 

5 of the proposed final congressional redistricting plan or 

6 posts a new proposed final congressional redistricting 

7 plan, subsections (a) and (b) shall apply with respect to 

8 the amended version of the plan or the new plan in the 

9 same manner as such subsections apply with respect to 

10 the proposed final plan which is first posted under sub11 section (a). 

12 (d) APPLICATION TO SUBORDINATE ENTITIES HOLD13 ING VOTES ON RECOMMENDING ADOPTION OF PLAN.— 

14 If a subordinate entity of a State redistricting entity de15 scribed in section 2(a)(2), including a committee or sub16 committee of the State redistricting entity, is directed 

17 under State law to hold a vote on recommending the adop18 tion of a final congressional redistricting plan to the State 

19 redistricting entity, subsections (a) and (b) shall apply 

20 with respect to the subordinate entity and the vote held 

21 by the subordinate entity on recommending the adoption 

22 of the plan in the same manner as such subsections apply 

23 to the State redistricting entity and the final vote held 

24 on the adoption of the final plan by the State redistricting 

25 entity. 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
16 

•HR 7095 IH

1 SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE; APPLICATION TO REDISTRICTING 

2 CONDUCTED PURSUANT TO 2020 CENSUS FOR 

3 CERTAIN STATES. 

4 (a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act and the amend5 ments made by this Act shall apply with respect to any 

6 congressional redistricting which occurs after the regular 

7 decennial census conducted during 2030. 

8 (b) APPLICATION TO REDISTRICTING CONDUCTED

9 PURSUANT TO 2020 CENSUS FOR STATES WITHOUT EN10 ACTED CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING PLANS.—If a 

11 State is ordered by a court to revise its congressional re12 districting plan for conducting redistricting pursuant to 

13 the regular decennial census conducted during 2020, and 

14 the State has not enacted such a final congressional redis15 tricting plan as of the date of the enactment of this Act, 

16 this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall apply 

17 with respect to congressional redistricting in the State 

18 which is conducted pursuant to the regular decennial cen19 sus conducted during 2020, except that— 

20 (1) the State shall establish the Internet site 

21 described in section 3 as soon as practicable after 

22 the date of the enactment of this Act; and 

23 (2) the State redistricting entity shall begin to 

24 solicit the input of members of the public under sec25 tion 4(b) not later than 30 days after the court 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
17 

•HR 7095 IH

1 issues the order to the State or such earlier deadline 

2 as the court may require under the order. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB