Expert: Reapportionment Process Can Be Messy, Confusing

Update: The figures have been released. Massachusetts loses one congressional seat.

On Tuesday at 11 a.m., the U.S. Census Bureau will release its official count of how many people live in each of the 50 states. The bureau will also announce a second set of numbers that could have a major impact on the political landscape: the number of seats that each state will have in the House of Representatives.

Early estimates say that Massachusetts will likely be one of the losers in this process. The Bay State could lose a seat to a faster-growing Sunbelt state like Arizona or Nevada.

James Brett — president of the New England Council and a former member of the state Legislature — joined Bob Oakes during Tuesday's Morning Edition to discuss the reapportionment process and talk about the possibility of the Bay State losing a congressional seat in the House. Brett was in charge of the committee that drew the new district boundaries the last time the state lost a seat, after the 1990 census.