State Demographer quizzed by lawmakers at Valley redistricting hearing

AUSTIN, Texas - A recent Senate Special Committee on Redistricting hearing designed to hear testimony from Rio Grande Valley residents only heard from two.The two were Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell and Brownsville community leader Michael Seifert. Their testimony has been covered by the Rio Grande Guardian. Click here to read about Boswell’s remarks. Click here to read what Seifert said.The rest of the one-hour hearing was dominated by the remarks of State Demographer Lloyd Potter and questions of Potter by state Sens. Eddie Lucio of Brownsville, Juan Hinojosa of McAllen, and Carol Alvarado of Houston. The Senate Special Committee on Redistricting is gathering testimony from around the state of Texas in advance of the redrawing of congressional and legislative boundaries. These have to be done every ten years, soon after new census data is published. The data collated under Census 2020 will be published later this spring. Potter said in the hearing that he expects the 2020 Census to undercount the number of residents in the Valley. If left unchallenged this will mean less federal funding for the Valley than should be apportioned.Potter said Texas has grown enough over the last ten years to probably mean three additional U.S. House seats will be awarded to the Lone Star State.Valley residents can still tune in and speak at other Senate Special Committee on Redistricting hearings. They can also submit written testimony. Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.