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WASHINGTON - The sponsor of a measure that would give Utah a fourth congressional seat is optimistic about the bill's chances in next week's lame duck session despite doubts expressed by some.
“No one in our leadership has indicated to me that this is not possible," Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., said in a statement Friday. “The stars are aligned. The time is now.”
The bill, still awaiting a Judiciary Committee vote, is primarily aimed at giving the nearly 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia a full-voting member of Congress. A seat for Republican Utah was added to balance the Democratic-dominated district; Utah lost out on getting a fourth seat after the 2000 Census.
A senior GOP aide told The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday that it was unlikely the bill would come up for a vote.
“There's simply too many Republicans who have problems with the bill to bring it up at this late of an hour in the session,” the aide said.
The Utah Legislature is set to meet Monday to debate a new four-seat map, meeting a demand by U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner for a final map before congressional action.
"We're continuing to have discussions with those who support this measure in Congress," said Mike Mower, spokesman for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. "We're hopeful that it will be placed on the calendar next week for the consideration it merits."
DC Vote, an advocacy group pushing for the full-voting rights for the district, offered a statement Friday from former GOP vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, who has been lobbying Congress to pass the measure.
“There remains a strong possibility of enacting the DC Voting Rights Act during the lame duck session of Congress,” Kemp said. “Conversations I have had with House and Senate leadership about the bill have been positive and encouraging.”
Critics of the bill have raised concerns that it may not pass constitutional muster because the document declares that members of the House must come from the states, and the District of Columbia is not a state.
The district's nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, says incoming speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised her continuing support of the bill if the GOP doesn't take up the measure next week. Pelosi is a co-sponsor of the legislation.
It's unclear, however, whether Utah will still be part of the legislation under a Democratic-controlled Congress.