February 15, 2021
By News Director Jared Atha
The House State and Federal Redistricting Committee was appointed Friday to continue the House’s public-focused redistricting process throughout the 2021 legislative session.
House Speaker Charles McCall appointed the 29-member bipartisan committee to establish the formal policies and protocols for House redistricting. After the delivery of final U.S. Census data, the committee will advance legislation containing new districts to the full House for consideration.
The standing committee will base its work on public input gathered by the House’s eight regional redistricting subcommittees, which conducted dozens of town halls across the state to hear from citizens about the composition of districts for the next decade. In a historic move, every House member was appointed to a regional subcommittee to ensure total representation of the full state in the redistricting process.
District 57 Representative Anthony Moore R-Clinton and District 55 Representative Todd Russ R-Cordell will both serve on the Northwest subcommittee.
The State and Federal Redistricting Committee will hold its first meeting this week to adopt policies, protocols and a public map submission process.
Rep. Ryan Martinez, R-Edmond, who chairs the House State and Federal Redistricting Committee says “The standing committee’s first order of business is setting a public map submission process. As has been the case from the beginning, public input continues to be the priority. All Oklahomans have been represented in the process to date, and the geographic and bipartisan diversity of membership on this committee will ensure that standard continues.”
Every ten years, the Oklahoma Constitution requires each legislative chamber to redraw its own districts and congressional districts following the release of decennial U.S. Census data.
The House State and Federal Redistricting Committee’s membership matches the partisan composition of the full House and includes the chairs and vice chairs of each regional subcommittee.
