The Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting met for an invited‑witness hearing on congressional Plan C2308 and received little in‑person testimony, the committee chair said.

The chair said the committee would accept amendments submitted by 9 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7 and that the proposed map, filed as Plan C2308, is available online at dvr.capitol.texas.gov/congress/73/planc2308 and on posters and handouts in the committee room. "The amendments are due by 9 a.m. tomorrow, August 7," the chair said.

Committee members were told the hearing was limited to invited witnesses and that public testimony will be taken the next day at 9 a.m. The chair said the committee split invited and public testimony across two days to avoid long waits for members of the public.

The chair read a list of invited organizations and experts, saying many did not respond or declined. The transcript lists Leah Aden (NAACP Legal Defense Fund), Tanya Chavez (La Unión del Pueblo Entero), Niyati Shaw (Asian Americans Advancing Justice), Luis Figueroa (Every Texan), Roman R. Palomares (LULAC), Gary Bledsoe (Texas NAACP), Michael Li (Brennan Center for Justice), Ellen D. Katz (University of Michigan Law School) and Nina Perales (MALDEF) among those invited; several either did not respond or said they could not attend. The chair also said all 12 Democratic U.S. House members were invited; responses varied. The committee noted that Representative Marc Veasey submitted written testimony for distribution to members.

The chair said the committee sent invitations to Harmit Dhillon of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and to Adam Kinkade and that motions to subpoena their attendance were considered but ultimately voted down. "We declined to subpoena them to testify," the chair said.

Senator Hinojosa noted that many invited witnesses who testified in earlier regional hearings raised concerns about possible violations of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution and said those witnesses had expressed difficulty offering map‑specific testimony before a map was available. "Many of these witnesses that we invited to testify today, many of them testified during the regional hearings. Correct?" Senator Hinojosa asked; the chair confirmed that many had testified previously and that the invited hearing was intended to let them comment on the specific map now on file.

Committee members were repeatedly told that members of the public who did not speak at the invited hearing could register to testify the next day and that written comments and uploaded documents submitted to the committee portal would be made available to the committee and the public and remain in the portal indefinitely. The chair closed the meeting after Senator Paxton moved that the committee stand in recess subject to the call of the chair.

Background: Committee members and several witnesses previously addressed redistricting at regional hearings, where witnesses raised legal and constitutional concerns but said the absence of a filed map limited their ability to comment on map specifics. The committee emphasized that tomorrow’s session would accept public testimony on Plan C2308 and reiterated the amendment submission deadline.