House Chair Lays out Likely Timeline for Reapportionment

The Census is right around the corner and that’s set to make the House Governmental Affairs Committee a busy place for the next two years.

Lake Charles Republican Stephen Dwight was just named Chair of the committee. He lays out the timeline for when Louisianans can expect reapportionment to begin.

“The Census will be in 2020, we will start looking at redistricting in 2021, and I think it will probably be a special session so we have all of the legislators focus on just redistricting,” says Dwight.

A Census is taken every ten years.

Dwight will join with Slidell Senator Sharon Hewitt, who chairs Senate House and Governmental Affairs, in the effort. He says they’ll tour the state after the Census is conducted.

“We will get input from the municipalities, those mayors, those police juries, and find out what people are looking for, get all of the data from the Census, and let the data drive the result,” says Dwight.

The last reapportionment was not favorable to Louisiana representation as the state lost a Congressional seat. Dwight says it’ll be interesting to find out if our population has recovered.

“Last time we did the Census we had an outward migration after Katrina. Have some of those citizens come back? That’s what we’ll have to see,” says Dwight.

The Census is hiring Census takers, and you can apply at 2020-census-dot-gov-slash-jobs.

(Story written by Matt Doyle/Louisiana Radio Network)