Updated 8:30 p.m. Aug. 18

A Texas House committee signed off on a plan to redraw the state's congressional districts during a brief meeting Aug. 18, hours after approximately two dozen Democrats returned to Austin and ended a two-week walkout in protest of the redistricting effort.

The proposed congressional map is largely similar to a plan considered during the previous special legislative session . Rep. Todd Hunter, a Corpus Christi Republican who filed the legislation, said he intended to improve "Republican political performance" by redrawing Texas' congressional lines, adding that the map was slightly altered to make several existing districts "more Republican."

Texas Republicans have said the map is designed to increase the GOP's narrow U.S. House majority by netting up to fiv

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