Florida House and Senate Agree on Redistricting Review Deal

The Florida Senate and House have reached their first deal on redistricting.

The House will concentrate on the new lines that the Senate proposed for Senate districts. The Senate will work on the new lines that will be proposed by the House for new House districts.

Both chambers will still have to work out a compromise for the congressional lines.

On Friday, House Redistricting Committee Chairman Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, accepted the redistricting proposal from his counterpart in the Senate, Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.

The Senate released drafts of its congressional and Senate maps on Monday.

The House is expected to release its first attempts at the once-a-decade new lines on Dec. 6.

The Senate and House redistricting subcommittees are scheduled to review the congressional maps on Dec. 8.

The following letter was sent from Weatherford to committee members on Friday.

"Dear Redistricting Committee and Subcommittee Members,

"Recently, the Senate Reapportionment Committee released their proposals for the state Senate and congressional maps. You can view those maps and related information via the Senates website at http://www.flsenate.gov/session/redistricting/.

"Their committee opted to not release a proposal for the state House map. Rather, the committee decided to focus its inquiry on those options for the state House map that will soon be released by our Redistricting Committee and House Redistricting Subcommittee.

"After discussing this issue with the co-chairs and vice chair of our Senate Redistricting Subcommittee, we are opting to proceed in the same manner, beginning our inquiry of the state Senate map by utilizing the Florida Senates proposal. In addition, the Senate Redistricting Subcommittee will workshop a state Senate map that was submitted by the Florida state conference of the NAACP. Therefore, next Tuesday, we will be releasing options for Floridas congressional and state House maps only.

"It is my sincerest hope that going forward in this manner will better enable a redistricting process that is respectful of our ultimate goal to redraw Floridas maps in a legally compliant manner. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me or our committees staff."

Sincerely,

Will Weatherford

House Redistricting Committee

www.floridaredistricting.org