Senator Davis presents SB 7 25 map; committee pauses while members seek consensus on Pulaski and Sebastian county lines

Senator Brianne Davis (District 16) presented Senate Bill 7 25 to the Senate State Agencies & Governmental Affairs Committee, describing a congressional map that reduces county splits from five to three and ‘‘keeps Little Rock whole, it keeps North Little Rock whole’’ while following natural boundaries such as the river and highways 67 and 167. Davis said she was not asking for a vote and asked the committee to consider the proposal while she continues to work with the House cosponsor, Representative Dodson.

The proposal, Davis said, moves about 5,000 people from Pulaski County into the Fourth Congressional District and seeks to keep smaller counties that had been split for years grouped together. ‘‘We tried a lot of different options…that just didn't fit, and that was the one that fit the best,’’ Davis said when committee members questioned the line-drawing choices.

Committee members pressed several concerns. Senator English objected to taking industrial and logistics areas east of Highway 167 — including what he described as an Amazon fulfillment center and trucking facilities — out of the Second District, calling the change ‘‘unacceptable.’’ Davis maintained the map was built to meet legal criteria and to keep cities intact where possible and offered to provide precise population counts on request.

The session turned to Sebastian County, where Senator Matt Pitch and other advocates urged the committee to keep the county whole. Pitch said local leaders and about 20 CEOs had sent written requests and emphasized the community’s opposition to being divided again after a decade split. Committee discussion included geographic tradeoffs and travel-distance considerations for constituents; the chair provided county-by-county population figures to inform choices (Sebastian County 127,799; Crawford County 60,133; Madison County ~16,521 reported for committee planning).

Senator Davis told the committee she would work with the Board of Legislative Research (BLR) to draft an amended map that would ‘‘make Sebastian County whole’’ by carving roughly 10,000 people out of Crawford County for reallocation. The chair said the committee would recess to allow consultations with House chairs and reconvene later; no formal votes on map measures were taken during this meeting.

What happens next: Davis and BLR will circulate revised map options to committee members for consideration. The chair said the panel will reconvene as needed and asked members to remain available while the House also works on its maps.

Provenance: topicintro SEG 066, topfinish SEG 776.

Speakers quoted or cited in this article appear in the committee roster and include Senator Brianne Davis, Senator Matt Pitch, Senator English and the committee chair (name not specified in the transcript).