[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 11447-11448]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  IN SUPPORT OF TEXAS REPRESENTATIVES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HINOJOSA. Mr. Speaker, once again I rise today to salute the 53 
Texas State House representatives who have taken a courageous stand to 
preserve justice and democracy in Texas. As those courageous 
representatives said in a written statement, ``We are taking a stand 
for fair play for all Texans. We refuse to participate in an inherently 
unfair process that slams the door of opportunity in the face of Texas 
voters.''
  Tom DeLay's arguments for redistricting Texas all over again cannot 
hide the real partisan power grab at work here or the unfair process he 
has engineered that short-circuits the ability of Texas voters to 
express their views. First, DeLay argued that the U.S. Constitution 
requires the State legislature to replace the court-ordered district 
lines with its own redistricting plan in time for the 2004 election. 
But the Texas State attorney general concluded that the legislature has 
no constitutional or legal obligation to redraw congressional 
districts. He decided that DeLay was flat wrong in his argument that 
the current district lines are only temporary and that the legislature 
has a mandated responsibility to redraw them in time for the next 
election.
  But still DeLay presses on. Next he claimed that redistricting is 
necessary to increase the number of minority districts in Texas. That, 
too, is flat wrong. In fact, his plan to redraw congressional districts 
would dilute minority voting strength statewide. It would splinter 
Hispanic communities all

[[Page 11448]]

along the southwest Texas border region. It would suppress the voices 
of millions of Hispanics living along the Texas border and give their 
representation to areas in central Texas. That is why the proposed 
redistricting plan blatantly violates the Voting Rights Act and the 
U.S. Constitution.
  In south Texas, border cities such as McAllen, Texas, in my 15th 
Congressional District are cut up into as many as three different 
congressional districts and grouped with residents of downtown Austin, 
Texas. It gerrymanders the 15th Congressional District so that it looks 
like a serpent that wiggles around the State of Texas for a distance of 
more than 400 miles with its head in Austin and its tail end in the 
border towns of Hidalgo County. Just look at the map. It was featured 
on CNN today. It starts here on the border in Hidalgo County, and it 
wiggles all the way around like this, all the way to Austin, Texas, for 
about 450 miles. That is the worst gerrymandering that has ever 
happened in the State of Texas, and that happens to be my congressional 
district. All this in order to increase the number of Republican 
Representatives in the Congress.
  Obviously the Democratic State representatives had no voice in the 
development of this redistricting plan, nor did citizens throughout 
Texas have an opportunity to speak out on this new congressional 
district map. That is why these 53 Texas representatives have broken 
quorum, the only option available to them, to stop this partisan power 
grab by Tom DeLay. That is why every major newspaper in the State of 
Texas has editorialized against the new redistricting map. The Waco 
Tribune Herald said it best: ``The map is a travesty that shatters the 
community of interest that is the foundation of congressional 
redistricting. It's a Machiavellian scheme that should be soundly 
defeated.''
  And the McAllen Monitor, the newspaper in my district, said it very 
succinctly: ``This crooked plan uses crooked lines to achieve twisted 
goals.''
  Clearly the citizens of Texas support the existing congressional 
district lines not just for the 2002 election, but for 2004 and every 
election after that through 2010 when the constitutionally mandated 
redistricting process will take place again.
  The current district lines are fair to both parties and comply with 
the Voting Rights Act. If Tom DeLay wants to increase Republican 
representation, he should seek to do so at the ballot box, not by 
hammering the legislature into changing the rules of the game in a way 
that would be extremely disruptive to our communities, our legislature 
and our State.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, I stand here in solidarity with these 53 
courageous Texas State representatives, especially those from south 
Texas: Kino Flores, Jim Solis, Rene Oliveira, Aaron Pena, Miguel Wise, 
Ryan Guillen and Juan Escobar. To all 53: We support you. We salute 
you.

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