By Bob Katzen

The Senate 4-35, rejected an amendment requiring that the Redistricting Committee consist of six members—three from the majority party (currently the Democrats) and three from the minority party (currently the Republicans). Current rules provide for a seven-member commission with five Democrats and two Republicans.

Redistricting, performed every 10 years based on the federal census, is the process of drawing new congressional and state legislative district boundaries. It will be done this year based on the 2020 census.

“I filed [this] amendment to ensure that there is equal representation on the redistricting,” said amendment sponsor Sen. Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton). “This will guarantee that the redistricting process is a fair, bipartisan effort.”

Amendment opponents noted that the new rules already double the current number of minority party members on the committee from one to two. They said going further than that is not necessary and noted that all Senate committees have more majority members than minority members.