Supporters of the bill cheered the hearing set for Sept. 14; it will be first time the Judiciary Committee has aired the question of voting rights for the district in some 25 years, according to Ilir Zherka, executive director of the advocacy group, DC Vote. The district has had a nonvoting representative in Congress since 1971.
"This is the first time in a generation" the committee will open dialogue on District of Columbia voting rights, Zherka said. "We think it's great news."
The federal district - where license plates complain about "Taxation without representation" - has a nonvoting member of the House. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., is designed to be politically neutral, providing a congressional seat to the district's Democratic stronghold and the Republican haven of Utah.
But a hearing on the bill doesn't guarantee a committee vote on the measure, and there are more hurdles of getting it out of the House and Senate before they adjourn for the year. The Senate plans to end its session Oct. 6 and may come back after the November mid-term elections, though it's unclear whether that will happen.
That gives the bill little time to pass before Congress is done and the bill would have to start over again.
"It's going to be difficult," Zherka says. "It's going to be a compressed agenda."
Scott Parker, chief of staff to Utah GOP Rep. Rob Bishop, said it still "looks promising" for the bill to make it out of the House this year and a hearing is a good first step.
But Parker also says it's hard to judge how the measure will proceed if it does.
"It's always hard to forecast congressional actions, especially late in the year," he said.
The measure, if passed, would create an at-large district in Utah covering the whole state until the next redistricting after the 2010 Census - a move meant to ease Democrats' fears that Rep. Jim Matheson, the lone Democrat in Utah's delegation, would be moved into a district even less favorable to him than his current one.
If the legislation is passed this year, Utah could hold a special election and seat a new member of Congress by January. The state lost out on getting a fourth seat after the 2000 Census by less than a thousand people.
The House Government Reform Committee approved the bill, but the Judiciary Committee has primary jurisdiction to pass it. So far, there are 39 co-sponsors of the bill, including Utah Republican Reps. Bishop and Chris Cannon. Matheson has not signed onto the measure, but favors a fourth seat.
The U.S. Constitution never provided for the district to have a seat in Congress, reserving that right for the “states.” But supporters of the voting rights for the 600,000 residents of the district have several legal opinions saying the legislation to create a seat would be constitutional.
The district currently has three electoral votes for president, allowed by an amendment to the Constitution in 1961. The measure before Congress would permanently increase the House to 437 members, up two from the current 435.
tburr@sltrib.com
