(The Center Square) — A House committee approved one bill to create new congressional districts and deferred another on Wednesday during the third day of an extraordinary session.
The House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs voted 11-6 to advance Rep. Michael Echols’ House Bill 14, which aims to redistrict the state’s congressional districts to comply with a court order to add a second Black majority district. Louisiana currently has one majority Black district and five majority-white districts.
HB 14 would shift District 6 into a majority-minority district and majority-Black district, putting Congressman Garret Graves in political peril.
Rep. Wilford Carter, D-Lake Charles, noted that neither majority-minority district in HB 14 has a Black voting age population over 50%.
“If you continue to up the VAP Black percentage, you end up with what the Senate currently has, which is a gerrymandered district, which I don’t think would hold up long term,” Echols said. “My goal is to avoid going back to a gerrymandered district” the state used two decades ago.
HB 14 is one of two bills advanced by lawmakers to craft new congressional districts during an eight-day extraordinary session called by Gov. Jeff Landry. The other is Senate Bill 8, by Sen. Glen Womack, R-Harrisonburg, that was advanced out of a Senate committee on Tuesday. SB 8 was slated for a Senate vote Wednesday afternoon.
The House Committee also agreed to voluntarily defer Baton Rouge Democratic Rep. Denise Marcelle’s House Bill 5, which mirrors Senate Bill 4 introduced by Sen. Ed Price, D-Gonzalez, to shift Republican Congresswoman Julia Letlow’s District 5 into a majority Black district. All of the proposed bills would maintain a majority Black district centered on New Orleans that’s currently represented by Democratic Congressman Troy Carter.
SB 4 was tabled by the Senate Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs on Tuesday, prompting Marcelle to defer her bill voluntarily.
“I’ve been here long enough, this is my ninth year, to know what’s going to get out (of committee) and what’s not going to get out,” she said. “There was an opportunity to hear pretty much the same map on the other side” in the Senate.
Womack’s bill would also turn Republican Congressman Garret Graves’ District 6 into a second Black-majority district, though with higher percentages of Black voting age populations in the two minority districts than HB 14.
SB 8, which Gov. Jeff Landry supports, would preserve seats for Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and Letlow, the only woman on the state’s congressional delegation and Womack’s congressman, Womack said.
Both Johnson and Graves have spoken out about the redistricting efforts, urging lawmakers to ignore the court order to redraw the state’s congressional districts and instead move to a trial on the merits of the existing map scheduled for February. The trial could result in a court-ordered map crafted by U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
“It remains my position that the existing map is constitutional and that the legal challenge to it should be tried on merits so the State has adequate opportunity to defend its merits,” Johnson posted to X Tuesday. “Should the state not prevail at trial, there are multiple other map options that are legally compliant and do not require the unnecessary surrender of a Republican seat in Congress.”
Republican Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who has defended the current congressional map in court, responded to Johnson’s comments, noting she and Gov. Jeff Landry have “exhausted all reasonable and meaningful avenues for legal remedies available to us.”
Other legislation that did not make it out of the House committee on Wednesday includes House Bill 4, a campaign finance bill sponsor Marcelle voluntarily deferred, and two bills from freshman Republican Rep. Michael Melerine of Caddo Parish that would have expanded the state Supreme Court to nine seats from the current seven.
