Monday, January 9, 2012

Kansas House Speaker Mike O'Neal is expecting a commission to approve the rules it will use in its redistricting work on the first day of the Legislature's annual session.

The House Redistricting Committee planned to meet Monday morning, a few hours before the House and Senate open the 90-day session at 2 p.m.

The committee's agenda includes a discussion of rules for redrawing boundaries, and O'Neal says he's expecting a vote.

O'Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, is the committee's chairman. The panel's ranking Democrat is House Minority Leader Paul Davis, of Lawrence.

The Kansas Constitution requires legislators to redraw state House and Senate districts once every 10 years, along with districts for the State Board of Education and the state's U.S. House districts.