I 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6250 

To establish the terms and conditions States must follow in carrying out 

Congressional redistricting. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 

Mr. NUNES introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To establish the terms and conditions States must follow 

in carrying out Congressional redistricting. 

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDING OF CONSTITUTIONAL 

4 AUTHORITY. 

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

6 ‘‘Congressional Redistricting Formula Act’’. 

7 (b) FINDING.—Congress finds that it has the author8 ity to establish the terms and conditions States must fol9 low in carrying out congressional redistricting after an apVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:21 Oct 08, 2010 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6250.IH H6250

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1 portionment of Members of the House of Representatives 

2 because— 

3 (1) the authority granted to Congress under ar4 ticle I, section 4 of the Constitution of the United 

5 States gives Congress the power to enact laws gov6 erning the time, place, and manner of elections for 

7 Members of the House of Representatives; and 

8 (2) the authority granted to Congress under 

9 section 5 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution 

10 gives Congress the power to enact laws to enforce 

11 section 2 of such amendment, which requires Rep12 resentatives to be apportioned among the several 

13 States according to their number. 

14 SEC. 2. STANDARDS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF CONGRES15 SIONAL DISTRICTS. 

16 (a) REQUIRING REDISTRICTING TO FOLLOW STAND17 ARDS.— 

18 (1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 

19 provision of law, any Congressional redistricting con20 ducted by a State after an apportionment of Rep21 resentatives shall be conducted in accordance with a 

22 plan— 

23 (A) which meets the standards described in 

24 subsection (b); and 


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1 (B) is enacted in accordance with the pub2 lic notice requirements of subsection (c). 

3 (2) PRIORITY IN CASE OF CONFLICT.—To the 

4 extent that it is inconsistent for a State to apply 

5 each of the standards described in subsection (b) in 

6 the case of a Congressional district, the State shall 

7 give priority to the standards in the order in which 

8 they are listed in subsection (b). 

9 (b) STANDARDS DESCRIBED.— 

10 (1) EQUAL POPULATION.—The number of per11 sons in each Congressional district in a State shall 

12 be as nearly equal to the number of persons in each 

13 other district in the State as is practicable. 

14 (2) BASIS FOR DETERMINING POPULATION.— 

15 The enumeration made pursuant to section 2 of arti16 cle I of the Constitution shall be the sole basis for 

17 determining population. 

18 (3) CONTIGUITY OF TERRITORY.—Congres19 sional districts in the State shall be comprised of 

20 contiguous territory, including adjoining insular ter21 ritory. 

22 (4) CONSISTENCY WITH VOTING RIGHTS ACT.— 

23 Congressional districts in the State shall be estab24 lished in conformance with the requirements of the 

25 Voting Rights Act of 1965. 


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1 (5) NO DILUTION OF VOTING STRENGTH.—Con2 gressional districts in the State may not be estab3 lished with the major purpose of diluting the voting 

4 strength of any person, or group, including any po5 litical party, except as necessary to comply with the 

6 requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

7 (6) AVOIDING DIVISION OF UNITS OF LOCAL

8 GOVERNMENT.— 

9 (A) IN GENERAL.—Except as necessary to 

10 comply with the requirements of the Voting 

11 Rights Act of 1965, the boundaries of Congres12 sional districts in the State shall be drawn so 

13 as to avoid the unnecessary division of units of 

14 local government and, to the greatest extent 

15 possible, shall be drawn in accordance with the 

16 following specific standards: 

17 (i) No more than one Congressional 

18 district shall cross the common boundary 

19 between any 2 counties, townships, towns, 

20 villages, cities, or any other units of local 

21 government. 

22 (ii) No Congressional district shall 

23 contain more than 2 fragments of counties, 

24 townships, towns, villages, cities, or any 

25 other units of local government. 


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1 (iii) No county, township, town, vil2 lage, city, or other unit of local government 

3 shall contain more than 2 Congressional 

4 district fragments. 

5 (B) FRAGMENT DEFINED.—For purposes 

6 of subparagraph (A), the term ‘‘fragment’’ 

7 means, with respect to a Congressional district, 

8 county, township, town, village, city, or other 

9 unit of local government, a portion of the unit 

10 which does not contain all the population of the 

11 Congressional district or unit of local govern12 ment (as the case may be). For purposes of this 

13 specific standard, a unit of local government in14 cludes the area and population entirely sur15 rounded by that unit’s outer boundary, includ16 ing the area and population of any other units 

17 of local government within that boundary. 

18 (7) PROMOTING COMPACTNESS OF DIS19 TRICTS.— 

20 (A) IN GENERAL.—Congressional districts 

21 in a State shall be compact in form, and the 

22 boundaries of districts shall be drawn so that 

23 nearby populations are not bypassed in favor of 

24 more distant populations, in accordance with 

25 the following criteria: 


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1 (i) Each district shall contain no less 

2 than 60 percent of the population con3 tained in that figure drawn around that 

4 district, bounded by only straight lines, 

5 with the shortest possible perimeter. 

6 (ii) The average of the sum of per7 centages calculated under clause (i) for all 

8 the districts in the State shall not be less 

9 than 75 percent. 

10 (iii) Only the population within the 

11 State in which each district is located shall 

12 be used in making the calculations de13 scribed in clauses (i) and (ii), except that 

14 the population of offshore islands may be 

15 excluded in making these calculations. 

16 (B) COMPUTATION OF PERCENTAGES.— 

17 For purposes of computing the percentages de18 scribed in subparagraph (A), the total popu19 lations of a census block shall be deemed within 

20 a Congressional district or figure surrounding 

21 that Congressional district if the geographic 

22 center of that block falls within the district or 

23 the figure drawn around the district. For pur24 poses of the previous sentence, the geographic 

25 center of a census block shall be defined as the 


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1 point contained within the boundaries of the 

2 census block which is normally calculated to 

3 display a label in that block when generating a 

4 map. 

5 (c) PUBLIC NOTICE REQUIREMENTS.— 

6 (1) SOLICITATION OF COMMENTS PRIOR TO EN7 ACTMENT.—A State may not enact a plan for Con8 gressional redistricting unless, during a period of at 

9 least 2 weeks preceding the enactment of the plan— 

10 (A) the State makes available on the Inter11 net and publishes detailed maps showing the 

12 exact boundaries of each proposed Congres13 sional district and a detailed analysis of the 

14 population of each proposed Congressional dis15 trict; and 

16 (B) the State solicits comments and ques17 tions on the plan from the public, under such 

18 methods as the State may select which provide 

19 the greatest opportunity practicable for public 

20 input. 

21 (2) SHARING OF INFORMATION USED TO DE22 VELOP PLANS.— 

23 (A) POSTING OF INFORMATION.—During 

24 the period described in subparagraph (B), the 

25 entity of the government of a State which reVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:21 Oct 08, 2010 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6250.IH H6250

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1 sponsible for conducting Congressional redis2 tricting in the State shall make available on the 

3 Internet (on a continuously updated basis) all 

4 of the population and demographic data which 

5 is used by the State to develop Congressional 

6 redistricting plans. 

7 (B) PERIOD DESCRIBED.—The period de8 scribed in this subparagraph is the period— 

9 (i) which begins on the final deadline 

10 provided under section 22(b) of the Act en11 titled ‘‘An Act to provide for the fifteenth 

12 and subsequent decennial censuses and to 

13 provide for an apportionment of Represent14 atives in Congress’’, approved June 18, 

15 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a), for the Clerk of the 

16 House of Representatives to transmit to 

17 the State the notice of the number of Rep18 resentatives to which the State is entitled 

19 in the following Congress; and 

20 (ii) which ends on the date on which 

21 the State enacts the Congressional redis22 tricting plan. 


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1 SEC. 3. NO EFFECT ON ELECTIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL 

2 OFFICE. 

3 Nothing in this Act may be construed to affect the 

4 manner in which a State carries out elections for State 

5 or local office, including the process by which a State es6 tablishes the districts used in such elections. 

7 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

8 This Act shall apply with respect to any congressional 

9 redistricting which occurs after the regular decennial cen10 sus conducted during 2010. 

Æ 


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