House Democrats are probing the FBI's efforts to help locate a group of Democratic state legislators from Texas who fled the state in a bid to stop Republicans from redrawing Texas' congressional maps.

Using the FBI to track down AWOL Texas Democrats is an unnecessary expansion of federal law enforcement authority.

The chair of the Texas House Democratic caucus remained defiant Thursday in the face of one US senator’s bid to enlist the FBI’s help in returning him and his state House colleagues to the state.