BY WESLEY P. HESTER

With little fuss, the House of Delegate’s Privileges and Elections committee on Wednesday approved a Republican-drawn congressional redistricting plan that failed to clear the legislature last year having been quashed in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Things are different this year.

After last year’s elections, the Senate is now split evenly between Republicans and Democrats with Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling breaking most ties.

Republicans hope that the redistricting plan — drawn last year by retired Del. Bill Janis, R-Henrico — can now advance with Bolling’s support.

During a five-minute meeting, the committee reported out identical legislation (House Bill 251) introduced by Del. Robert B. Bell, R-Albemarle, on a 16-2 vote, with Dels. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, and Mark D. Sickles, D-Fairfax, dissenting.

The redistricting plan would reshape Virginia’s 11 congressional districts in line with the current map, retaining a single black-majority district, the 3rd, which has been represented since 1992 by Democrat Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, who is African-American.

The Senate last year proposed a plan that would reduce the number of blacks in the 3rd from about 55 percent to 40 percent, and create a new black-majority district in the 4th District, now represented by Republican J. Randy Forbes, who is white. It was rejected by the House.

The issue of redistricting has become urgent as questions have arisen over how U.S. Senate candidates should gather the signatures necessary to be placed on the ballot for the June GOP primary.