[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 73 (Thursday, May 15, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H4178-H4179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TEXAS REDISTRICTING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Bell) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BELL. Mr. Speaker, this gives us a great opportunity to talk 
about what has transpired in Austin, Texas, and Ardmore, Oklahoma, over 
the course of this week and what really has transpired throughout the 
Nation and to set the record straight. I appreciate having this 
opportunity. During the course of the debate which has taken place this 
week, there have been some very large misstatements of fact. This gives 
us a chance to correct the record on some of those issues.
  There has been a lot of finger-wagging by the majority leader, Mr. 
DeLay, along with the Speaker of the Texas House, Mr. Craddick, acting 
as if they were terribly surprised by the Democrats' reaction to this 
redistricting bill that was going to be jammed down their throats.
  Mr. Speaker, we can look back to editorials in almost every major 
Texas newspaper dating back to January of this year where almost every 
major newspaper took an editorial position that because of the problems 
facing the State of Texas, because of the challenges that the Texas 
legislature would be facing because they only meet every 2 years and 
they have a very limited amount of time to address those challenges, 
every major newspaper editorialized that redistricting should be stayed 
away from. Redistricting had already been accomplished by the courts 
just 2 years ago. There was absolutely no reason to take an absolutely 
unprecedented course of action and take up redistricting in what was 
obviously nonsense this year.
  But despite those warnings and the warnings set forth very clearly 
that redistricting would be an incredibly partisan issue, an incredibly 
divisive issue and would distract from everything that the legislature 
needed to accomplish, despite those warnings, the majority leader of 
this body decided to march forward with this very partisan power grab. 
And so what we saw happen this week with 53 very courageous Democrats 
from the State House of Representatives going to Ardmore, Oklahoma, had 
to be expected. There was no surprise. Everybody knew that they would 
take a stand, that they would fight back. For them to now act as if 
they were completely shocked is absolutely absurd and absolutely 
ridiculous.
  Another question that has been raised during the course of this 
debate is that is this not politics as usual and now that the 
Republicans have a majority in the State House, should this not be 
expected; should they not try to change the majority of congressional 
districts in the State of Texas since Texas is a majority Republican 
State. Again, that is a little bit misleading. Because Texas already 
has a majority of Republican congressional districts. In fact, if one 
looks at the voter percentages and the voter history in each of the 
congressional districts in the State of Texas, there are 20 Republican 
districts and there are only 12 Democratic districts.
  Why then is there a Democratic majority? Why are there 17 Democrats 
and 15 Republicans elected to Congress from the State of Texas? That is 
rather simple. Because in five of those Republican districts, the 
voters, Mr. Speaker, have decided that they like their Democratic 
Representatives and have returned them time and time again to the U.S. 
House of Representatives. That is what in Texas and I think everywhere 
else in the United States we call democracy. Under this plan, the 
secret plan that finally saw the light of day that Mr. DeLay is 
proposing, Mr. Speaker, it would change all that by going in and 
tearing apart districts, tearing apart communities that have been 
together for years and years, destroying those districts as they exist 
today to make it practically impossible for the Representatives, the

[[Page H4179]]

Democratic Representatives who currently serve in those districts, to 
be reelected. That is not what we call democracy, Mr. Speaker. That is 
what we call a very partisan power grab.
  The heroes from the State House of Representatives in Texas who went 
to Ardmore, Oklahoma, this week have been criticized by many on the 
other side of the aisle. They have said that they should be in Austin 
carrying out the people's business, they should be there to vote on the 
legislation which is before them. But interestingly, I heard none of 
those same complaints just last week when the majority leader of this 
body decided it was more important to be in Austin, Texas, to lobby for 
his secret redistricting plan instead of being here in Washington, 
D.C., along with the rest of us voting on the legislation which was 
before us. I heard nobody from the other side of the aisle rise to the 
podium and say the majority leader should be here in Washington, D.C., 
carrying on and representing his district back home.

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