[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2885 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2885
To require congressional redistricting conducted by a State to be
conducted in accordance with a redistricting plan developed and enacted
into law by an independent redistricting commission established by the
State, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 18 (legislative day, September 16), 2025
Mr. Padilla (for himself, Mr. Warnock, Mr. King, and Mr. Schiff)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require congressional redistricting conducted by a State to be
conducted in accordance with a redistricting plan developed and enacted
into law by an independent redistricting commission established by the
State, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; STATEMENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY; TABLE OF
CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Redistricting
Reform Act of 2025''.
(b) Finding of Constitutional Authority.--Congress finds that it
has the authority to establish the terms and conditions States must
follow in carrying out congressional redistricting after an
apportionment of Members of the House of Representatives because--
(1) the authority granted to Congress under article I,
section 4 of the Constitution of the United States gives
Congress the power to enact laws governing the time, place, and
manner of elections for Members of the House of
Representatives;
(2) the authority granted to Congress under section 5 of
the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution gives Congress the
power to enact laws to enforce section 2 of such amendment,
which requires Representatives to be apportioned among the
several States according to their number;
(3) the authority granted to Congress under section 5 of
the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution gives Congress the
power to enact laws to enforce section 1 of such amendment,
including protections against excessive partisan gerrymandering
that Federal courts have not enforced because they understand
such enforcement to be committed to Congress by the
Constitution;
(4) of the authority granted to Congress to enforce article
IV, section 4, of the Constitution, and the guarantee of a
Republican Form of Government to every State, which Federal
courts have not enforced because they understand such
enforcement to be committed to Congress by the Constitution;
and
(5) requiring States to use uniform redistricting criteria
is an appropriate and important exercise of such authority.
(c) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as
follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; statement of constitutional authority; table of
contents.
TITLE I--REQUIREMENTS FOR CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING
Sec. 101. Requiring congressional redistricting to be conducted through
plan of independent State commission.
Sec. 102. Ban on mid-decade redistricting.
Sec. 103. Criteria for redistricting.
TITLE II--INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMMISSIONS
Sec. 201. Independent redistricting commission.
Sec. 202. Establishment of selection pool of individuals eligible to
serve as members of commission.
Sec. 203. Public notice and input.
Sec. 204. Establishment of related entities.
Sec. 205. Report on diversity of memberships of independent
redistricting commissions.
TITLE III--ROLE OF COURTS IN DEVELOPMENT OF REDISTRICTING PLANS
Sec. 301. Failure by State to enact plan.
Sec. 302. Special rule for redistricting conducted under order of
Federal court.
TITLE IV--ADMINISTRATIVE AND MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec. 401. Payments to States for carrying out redistricting.
Sec. 402. Civil enforcement.
Sec. 403. State apportionment notice defined.
Sec. 404. No effect on elections for State and local office.
Sec. 405. Effective date.
TITLE I--REQUIREMENTS FOR CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING
SEC. 101. REQUIRING CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING TO BE CONDUCTED THROUGH
PLAN OF INDEPENDENT STATE COMMISSION.
(a) Use of Plan Required.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, and except as provided in subsection (c) and subsection (d), any
congressional redistricting conducted by a State shall be conducted in
accordance with--
(1) the redistricting plan developed and enacted into law
by the independent redistricting commission established in the
State, in accordance with title II; or
(2) if a plan developed by such commission is not enacted
into law, the redistricting plan developed and enacted into law
by a 3-judge court, in accordance with section 301.
(b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 22(c) of the Act entitled ``An
Act to provide for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses and
to provide for an apportionment of Representatives in Congress'',
approved June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a(c)), is amended by striking ``in
the manner provided by the law thereof'' and inserting: ``in the manner
provided by the Redistricting Reform Act of 2025''.
(c) Special Rule for Existing Commissions.--Subsection (a) does not
apply to any State in which, under law in effect continuously on and
after the date of the enactment of this Act, congressional
redistricting is carried out in accordance with a plan developed and
approved by an independent redistricting commission which is in
compliance with each of the following requirements:
(1) Publicly available application process.--Membership on
the commission is open to citizens of the State through a
publicly available application process.
(2) Disqualifications for government service and political
appointment.--Individuals who, for a covered period of time as
established by the State, hold or have held public office,
individuals who are or have been candidates for elected public
office, and individuals who serve or have served as an officer,
employee, or paid consultant of a campaign committee of a
candidate for public office are disqualified from serving on
the commission.
(3) Screening for conflicts.--Individuals who apply to
serve on the commission are screened through a process that
excludes persons with conflicts of interest from the pool of
potential commissioners.
(4) Multi-partisan composition.--Membership on the
commission represents those who are affiliated with the two
political parties whose candidates received the most votes in
the most recent statewide election for Federal office held in
the State, as well as those who are unaffiliated with any party
or who are affiliated with political parties other than the two
political parties whose candidates received the most votes in
the most recent statewide election for Federal office held in
the State.
(5) Criteria for redistricting.--Members of the commission
are required to meet certain criteria in the map drawing
process, including minimizing the division of communities of
interest and a ban on drawing maps to favor a political party.
(6) Public input.--Public hearings are held and comments
from the public are accepted before a final map is approved.
(7) Broad-based support for approval of final plan.--The
approval of the final redistricting plan requires a majority
vote of the members of the commission, including the support of
at least one member of each of the following:
(A) Members who are affiliated with the political
party whose candidate received the most votes in the
most recent statewide election for Federal office held
in the State.
(B) Members who are affiliated with the political
party whose candidate received the second most votes in
the most recent statewide election for Federal office
held in the State.
(C) Members who are not affiliated with any
political party or who are affiliated with political
parties other than the political parties described in
subparagraphs (A) and (B).
(d) Treatment of State of Iowa.--Subsection (a) does not apply to
the State of Iowa, so long as congressional redistricting in such State
is carried out in accordance with a plan developed by the Iowa
Legislative Services Agency with the assistance of a Temporary
Redistricting Advisory Commission, under law which was in effect for
the most recent congressional redistricting carried out in the State
prior to the date of the enactment of this Act and which remains in
effect continuously on and after the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 102. BAN ON MID-DECADE REDISTRICTING.
(a) Ban.--A State that has been redistricted in accordance with
this Act and a State described in section 101(c) or section 101(d) may
not be redistricted again until after the next apportionment of
Representatives under section 22(a) of the Act entitled ``An Act to
provide for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses and to
provide for an apportionment of Representatives in Congress'', approved
June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a), unless a court requires the State to
conduct such subsequent redistricting to comply with the Constitution
of the United States, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et
seq.), the Constitution of the State, or the terms or conditions of
this Act.
(b) Applicability of Remedies for Noncompliance.--Section 402
applies with respect to a violation of subsection (a) in the same
manner as such section applies with respect to a violation of any other
provision of this Act, and the remedies available pursuant to such
section may be applied with respect to a violation of subsection (a).
(c) Effective Date.--This section shall apply with respect to
redistricting carried out pursuant to the decennial census conducted
during 2020 or any succeeding decennial census.
SEC. 103. CRITERIA FOR REDISTRICTING.
(a) Requiring Plans To Meet Criteria.--A State may not use a
congressional redistricting plan that is not in compliance with this
section.
(b) Ranked Criteria.--Under the redistricting plan of a State,
there shall be established single-member congressional districts using
the following criteria as set forth in the following order of priority:
(1) Districts shall comply with the United States
Constitution, including the requirement that they substantially
equalize total population.
(2) Districts shall comply with the Voting Rights Act of
1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.), including by creating any
districts where, if based upon the totality of the
circumstances, 2 or more politically cohesive groups protected
by such Act are able to elect representatives of choice in
coalition with one another, and all applicable Federal laws.
(3)(A) Districts shall be drawn, to the extent that the
totality of the circumstances warrant, to ensure the practical
ability of a group protected under the Voting Rights Act of
1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et seq.) to participate in the political
process and to nominate candidates and to elect representatives
of choice is not diluted or diminished, regardless of whether
or not such protected group constitutes a majority of a
district's citizen voting age population.
(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the assessment of
whether a protected group has the practical ability to nominate
candidates and to elect representatives of choice shall require
the consideration of the following factors:
(i) Whether the group is politically cohesive.
(ii) Whether there is racially polarized voting in
the relevant geographic region.
(iii) If there is racially polarized voting in the
relevant geographic region, whether the preferred
candidates of the group nevertheless receive a
sufficient amount of consistent crossover support from
other voters such that the group is a functional
majority with the ability to both nominate candidates
and elect representatives of choice.
(4)(A) Districts shall be drawn to represent communities of
interest and neighborhoods to the extent practicable after
compliance with the requirements of paragraphs (1) through (3).
A community of interest is defined as an area for which the
record before the entity responsible for developing and
adopting the redistricting plan demonstrates the existence of
broadly shared interests and representational needs, including
shared interests and representational needs rooted in common
ethnic, racial, economic, Indian, social, cultural, geographic,
or historic identities, or arising from similar socioeconomic
conditions. The term communities of interest may, if the record
warrants, include political subdivisions such as counties,
municipalities, Indian lands, or school districts, but shall
not include common relationships with political parties or
political candidates.
(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), in considering the
needs of multiple, overlapping communities of interest, the
entity responsible for developing and adopting the
redistricting plan shall give greater weight to those
communities of interest whose representational needs would most
benefit from the community's inclusion in a single
congressional district.
(c) No Favoring or Disfavoring of Political Parties.--
(1) Prohibition.--A State may not use a redistricting plan
to conduct an election that, when considered on a statewide
basis, has been drawn with the intent or has the effect of
materially favoring or disfavoring any political party.
(2) Determination of effect.--The determination of whether
a redistricting plan has the effect of materially favoring or
disfavoring a political party shall be based on an evaluation
of the totality of circumstances which, at a minimum, shall
involve consideration of each of the following factors:
(A) Computer modeling based on relevant statewide
general elections for Federal office held over the 8
years preceding the adoption of the redistricting plan
setting forth the probable electoral outcomes for the
plan under a range of reasonably foreseeable
conditions.
(B) An analysis of whether the redistricting plan
is statistically likely to result in partisan advantage
or disadvantage on a statewide basis, the degree of any
such advantage or disadvantage, and whether such
advantage or disadvantage is likely to be present under
a range of reasonably foreseeable electoral conditions.
(C) A comparison of the modeled electoral outcomes
for the redistricting plan to the modeled electoral
outcomes for alternative plans that demonstrably comply
with the requirements of paragraphs (1), (2), and (3)
of subsection (b) in order to determine whether
reasonable alternatives exist that would result in
materially lower levels of partisan advantage or
disadvantage on a statewide basis. For purposes of this
subparagraph, alternative plans considered may include
both actual plans proposed during the redistricting
process and other plans prepared for purposes of
comparison.
(D) Any other relevant information, including how
broad support for the redistricting plan was among
members of the entity responsible for developing and
adopting the plan and whether the processes leading to
the development and adoption of the plan were
transparent and equally open to all members of the
entity and to the public.
(3) Rebuttable presumption.--
(A) Trigger.--In any civil action brought under
section 402 in which a party asserts a claim that a
State has enacted a redistricting plan which is in
violation of this subsection, a party may file a motion
not later than 30 days after the enactment of the plan
(or, if later, not later than 30 days after the
effective date of this Act) requesting that the court
determine whether a presumption of such a violation
exists. If such a motion is timely filed, the court
shall hold a hearing not later than 15 days after the
date the motion is filed to assess whether a
presumption of such a violation exists.
(B) Assessment.--To conduct the assessment required
under subparagraph (A), the court shall do the
following:
(i) Determine the number of congressional
districts under the plan that would have been
carried by each political party's candidates
for the office of President and the office of
Senator in the 2 most recent general elections
for the office of President and the 2 most
recent general elections for the office of
Senator (other than special general elections)
immediately preceding the enactment of the
plan, except that if a State conducts a primary
election for the office of Senator which is
open to candidates of all political parties,
the primary election shall be used instead of
the general election and the number of
districts carried by a party's candidates for
the office of Senator shall be determined on
the basis of the combined vote share