Sponsors (6)
The bill aims to reduce partisan gerrymandering and promote fairer, more competitive maps by requiring independent, balanced redistricting commissions and using federal grants as leverage, at the cost of shifting power away from state legislatures, risking funding losses for noncompliant states, and imposing administrative and legal burdens.
Voters nationwide: Requires independent redistricting commissions for congressional maps (starting with the 2020 census), reducing partisan gerrymandering and increasing the likelihood of fairer representation.
State and local election authorities: Conditions federal election-administration grants on adopting commission-based redistricting, creating a financial incentive for fairer State legislative maps.
Voters in many districts: Requires balanced party representation on commissions (equal numbers from the largest and second-largest parties), which should increase political competitiveness and reduce one-party dominance in map drawing.
State and local governments (and taxpayers): States that do not adopt commission-based redistricting could lose federal election-administration funding, reducing resources for administering elections.
State legislatures and elected officials: Curtails legislative control over redistricting by shifting map-making authority to independent commissions, reducing power for state-elected bodies.
State governments: Creating and implementing new commission structures with specific membership rules could impose administrative costs and prompt legal challenges during setup and operation.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires states to use nonpartisan independent redistricting commissions for congressional and state legislative maps and ties federal election-administration funds to certification of compliance.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Brian K. Fitzpatrick · Last progress January 3, 2025
Requires each State to adopt a nonpartisan independent redistricting commission to draw Congressional maps (starting with the 2020-census redistricting) and conditions receipt of any Federal funds provided directly for election administration on the State certifying to the Election Assistance Commission that future State legislative redistricting is done by such a commission. A “nonpartisan independent commission” is defined as a body with equal numbers of members from the largest and second-largest registered parties and no members who are elected public officials.