Title: Redistricting and Voter Protection Act of 2017
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Summary:
Redistricting and Voter Protection Act of 2017
This bill requires a state that enacts a congressional redistricting plan prior to the next decennial census and apportionment of Representatives to obtain a declaratory judgment or preclearance from the Attorney General that such plan does not have the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color or in contravention of the guarantees of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 151 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 151

      To require any State which, after enacting a Congressional 
   redistricting plan after a decennial census and apportionment of 
 Representatives, enacts a subsequent Congressional redistricting plan 
        prior to the next decennial census and apportionment of 
 Representatives, to obtain a declaratory judgment or preclearance in 
the manner provided under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 
             order for the subsequent plan to take effect.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 3, 2017

Mr. Al Green of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                   to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To require any State which, after enacting a Congressional 
   redistricting plan after a decennial census and apportionment of 
 Representatives, enacts a subsequent Congressional redistricting plan 
        prior to the next decennial census and apportionment of 
 Representatives, to obtain a declaratory judgment or preclearance in 
the manner provided under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 
             order for the subsequent plan to take effect.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Redistricting and Voter Protection 
Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. REQUIRING DECLARATORY JUDGMENT OR PRECLEARANCE AS PREREQUISITE 
              FOR MULTIPLE CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING PLANS ENACTED 
              PURSUANT TO SAME DECENNIAL CENSUS AND APPORTIONMENT OF 
              REPRESENTATIVES.

    (a) Declaratory Judgment That Plan Does Not Deny or Abridge Right 
To Vote on Account of Race or Color.--Except as provided in subsection 
(b), after a State enacts a Congressional redistricting plan in the 
manner provided by law after an apportionment of Representatives under 
section 22(a) of the Act entitled ``An Act to provide for the fifteenth 
and subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for an apportionment 
of Representatives in Congress'', approved June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a), 
any subsequent Congressional redistricting plan enacted by the State 
prior to the next apportionment of Representatives under such section 
shall not take effect unless and until--
            (1) the State commences a civil action in the United States 
        District Court for the District of Columbia for a declaratory 
        judgment that such subsequent plan neither has the purpose nor 
        will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote 
        on account of race or color, or in contravention of the 
        guarantees set forth in section 4(f)(2) of the Voting Rights 
        Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10303(f)(2)); and
            (2) the court enters such a declaratory judgment.
    (b) Preclearance.--A subsequent Congressional redistricting plan 
described in subsection (a) may take effect if--
            (1) the chief legal officer or other appropriate official 
        of the State involved submits the plan to the Attorney General 
        and the Attorney General has not interposed an objection within 
        60 days of such submission; or
            (2) upon good cause shown, to facilitate an expedited 
        approval within 60 days of such submission, the Attorney 
        General has affirmatively indicated that such objection will 
        not be made.
    (c) Application of Voting Rights Act of 1965.--For purposes of the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965, a declaratory judgment under subsection (a) 
or a preclearance under subsection (b), and the proceedings related to 
such judgment or preclearance, shall be treated as a declaratory 
judgment or preclearance under section 5 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 10304).

SEC. 3. NO EFFECT ON REDISTRICTING PLANS ENACTED PURSUANT TO COURT 
              ORDER.

    Section 1 does not apply with respect to any subsequent 
Congressional redistricting plan described in section 1(a) if the plan 
is enacted by a State pursuant to a court order in order to comply with 
the Constitution or to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 
10301 et seq.).
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