A bill creating Utah's fourth seat in Congress may be voted on in March, now that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave her "unequivocal support" to the legislation, which also approves a full House vote for the District of Columbia, according to Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.
Norton and advocates for District voting rights are eager to get the bill passed, but there is lukewarm support from members of Utah's congressional delegation, who are still studying it, they say.
The bill gives the district a vote and raises the number of the House members from 435 to 437. Utah is next in line to get a new House seat after the 2010 Census, so the bill just speeds up the time line as part of a bipartisan compromise to avoid either political party gaining an advantage over the other. Utah's seat would likely go to a Republican while the District's seat would likely go to a Democrat. Utah drew a new four-congressional district map late last year to help get the bill done before Congress adjourned, but it adjourned before it could be passed.
Norton and Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty met with Pelosi Thursday as part of a Congress Day 2007, a lobbying effort organized by DC Vote, a voting rights advocacy group. An estimated 500 residents visited congressional offices to urge them to support the bill, according to DC Vote communications director Kevin Kiger.
Norton released a statement Thursday afternoon saying she was "elated" by Pelosi's "unequivocal support" for the bill and "her determination to bring the bill forward as soon as possible."
Congress has a weeklong Presidents Day holiday recess next week, but Kiger said there appears to be enough momentum that movement on the bill would likely come in March.
Utah's House members all support an additional member — even it if means they have to rerun for seats they all just won in November — but they want to make sure the bill is written correctly to help Utah.
Rep. Rob Bishop's chief of staff Scott Parker said he likes the original form of the bill better than the current version, which is the third rewrite. The first version simply gave Utah a seat and the district a vote and then the state would have created the district, just as if it had been done after the census. The second version created an at-large seat for Utah until districts would be drawn after the next census. Now there is a redrawn map, but it is not clear if the state has to use that under the bill.
"The longer this drags out though, the less appealing (or) compelling the bill becomes to us, because the added benefit for Utah gets more and more limited," Parker said. "At this point we may just be better off waiting till the next census in three years."
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said last week he is still looking at the bill, especially because if all the current members need to rerun, a special election would cost the state money.
Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, "wants to ensure that the rights of the citizens of Utah are secured" before signing on to the bill, said Fred Piccolo, Cannon's communications director.
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