Washington » The U.S. Senate agreed Thursday to expand the House with new seats for both Utah and the District of Columbia, putting the historic measure on course for seemingly inevitable passage in the House next week.
The Senate voted 61-37 to add two House members -- one for Republican Utah and another for highly Democratic D.C., bringing the nation's capital within striking distance of securing its first-ever full-voting member after a two-century fight for representation.
This bill also means Utah, which barely missed out on a fourth House member after the 2000 census, would gain that seat before the next population tally.
"This will rectify an injustice that occurred at the last census," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said after voting for the measure. "It's more than the right thing to do."
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, opposed the bill, calling it unconstitutional.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., plans to bring a similar bill up for debate next week in the even-more-Democratic House, where a previous version cruised to passage in 2007.
Thursday's Senate passage came with a GOP-led provision boosting the gun rights of D.C. residents -- an item that bill backers had fought to keep off.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., dismissed questions about that amendment, saying Americans should "celebrate" the passage of the DC Voting Rights Act, and Congress will "reason together" about Second Amendment rights later in negotiating between the chambers.
The bill primarily is geared toward giving full House representation to D.C.'s 600,000 residents. Utah was added to strike a political balance and nail down a few needed GOP votes.
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said residents are one step closer to having the same rights as other Americans but warned that challenges still loom.
"We are not taking anything for granted," Fenty said, "but sometimes momentum is realized in just how far we've come."
Hatch predicted the bill would see an immediate legal challenge when it's signed into law -- President Barack Obama co-sponsored the measure when he was in the Senate -- although the Utah senator is confident courts will uphold it.
"There's no guarantees here," Hatch said, "but this is as close to a guarantee as you can get to get this done."
Bennett opposed the bill, saying there was no way it would pass a court test and that the state already is on track to get a fourth seat after the 2010 census.
"My guess is it will be tied up in the courts past the census time," he said, "so it wouldn't make it anyway."
Utah's lone Democrat in Congress, Rep. Jim Matheson, backs the bill, but Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, may buck it. Freshman GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz has fought actively against it.
Though some in Congress wanted to yank Utah from the measure, supporters maintained they needed the Beehive State to keep it from being cast as a partisan ploy.
In addition, Paul Strauss, a D.C.-elected shadow senator, says Washington residents can empathize with Utahns, who have been under-represented for nearly a decade.
"I hope the people of Utah know that, over time, D.C. residents have come to understand the issue, and get it, and feel some sympathy," Strauss said. "So while there may be some comments like, 'Why Utah?' and 'What does it all mean?' but in town, we've been living with it for a couple years and we get it."
How did this start?
The decidedly Democratic District of Columbia has been seeking a full-voting House seat for decades but couldn't get it through a partisan Congress. Then, in 2002, after overwhelmingly Republican Utah narrowly missed snagging a fourth House seat from the 2000 Census, backers seized on what they saw as the perfect political compromise: Give both red Utah and blue D.C. a seat. The joint effort foundered under GOP rule, but has found new promise with Democrats in charge.
How do the House and Senate versions differ?
The newly passed Senate bill would give Utah an extra House member to be elected in 2010 and seated in January 2011, with the state carving up a new map with four distinct districts. The House version also has the new Utah member elected in 2010, but would have that representative elected statewide for two years until after the 2010 census. If both bills pass as written, the two chambers will have to hash out the differences. Sen. Orrin Hatch has vowed to make sure the Senate's four-district approach prevails. But a compromise is expected.
Is this a temporary seat?
The bill gives Utah a fourth House member for only two years, although, given the state's swelling population, that additional seat is expected to become permanent after the next census. Both bills expand the House by two seats to 437 permanently, so that no other state suffers a loss because of this legislation.
Will there be court challenges?
Yes. Detractors insist the bill is unconstitutional. Any lawsuits would be fast-tracked to a three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., and then directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. How the courts would rule is in question. Scholars on both sides differ. Opponents say the Constitution clearly states House members shall be elected by the "people of the several states," and D.C. is not a state. Backers counter that the courts have treated D.C. as a state for years. Residents there pay federal taxes and heed other federal laws.
Thomas Burr
