House OKs a 4th seat for Utah

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Apr 20, 2007 | by Suzanne Struglinski Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON -- The House approved a bill Thursday giving Utah a fourth seat and the District of Columbia a full-voting member in that chamber, but Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, did not join in on the celebration.

In the 241-177 vote Bishop was the only member who voted "present," meaning he did not vote for or against the bill. Bishop said he supports Utah getting a fourth seat and he supports voting rights for the District of Columbia but he just could not vote for the bill.

"It was a statement of frustration and protest," Bishop said. "They sure treated us like crap through the whole process."

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, voted in favor of the two new seats.

Bishop said he initially supported the idea of legislation pairing voting rights for the District of Columbia along with a new additional seat for Utah when the state lost its fight for the fourth seat after the 2000 Census.

But that was several years and several versions of the legislation ago, Bishop said.

"The significance has diminished," he said.

"The bill changed too many times, the process dragged on too long, and Utah got pushed around too much, to the point where the deal in my opinion just wasn't worth it."

Bishop said the Democratic leaders did not allow amendments that would have made the deal better for Utah, such as pushing off electing the new member until the 2008 election -- bypassing the state spending money on a special election in 2007 if the bill passes.

Then last year, Congress made the state Legislature draw a four- district map for the state before it would approve the bill. The state did and the governor approved it but Congress adjourned before a final vote on the bill. When the new session started in January, the newer version of the bill threw out the map idea, making the new seat an at-large position, where Bishop would have rather seen that decision left up to the state.

"We don't need D.C.," Bishop said, adding that Utah is going to get its seat after the 2010 Census anyway. Utah was added to the bill not only because it was the next state in line to get a new seat but it would likely go to a Republican while the District's seat would most likely go to a Democrat.

Cannon called the bill "a balance that I think actually works" and said there are ways to make it better down the line.

"What we have done here in the House is a little bit offensive to the Legislature in the state of Utah; we recognize that and promise to work in the Senate on that," Cannon said. "We're mandating what they do for their districts."

But Cannon said he was "thrilled" the bill passed.

"It's not about Utah." Cannon said, "Utah happens to be the state that would get the next vote and that's convenient. This is about how we govern ourselves in America."

Matheson said the seat was "long deserved."

"Another seat would give us added clout in Washington, D.C., on so many issues important to Utah families," Matheson said. "It's a step forward, after some unfortunate partisan attempts to block progress."

The bill was originally debated and set for a vote last month, but Republicans tacked on a gun control measure just before the vote, forcing Democrats to postpone it until a later time. During Thursday's debate, Democrats wrote the rules on the debate in a way that eliminated the chance for the gun measure to be added again by splitting the bill into separate parts. One bill created the new voting members while another bill found a way to pay for them.

But Bishop -- and the rest of the Utah House members -- took issue with a tax increase the Democrats crafted to help pay for the new member. As part of the Democrats rule that all bills must be paid for before they can be pasted, they attached a bill with a tax percentage change to those making $5 million a year or more. Under the House rules, that bill needed to pass in order for the bill allowing for the two new votes to move forward.

All three of Utah's House members voted against that bill, but it still passed 216-203, allowing the measure to move to the Senate.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said the bill's supporters do not need the 60 votes required to break a filibuster in the Senate.

"We need two votes," Norton said. "They are the votes of Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, because if they come forward and press this bill strongly as they should because their residents want it as much as mine, then out of senatorial courtesy they can get the Senate. It should be easier in the Senate."

But while Utah's Republican senators support a fourth seat for Utah, they acknowledge there is a fight ahead in the Senate.

"It's not clear that we would have the votes to pass the House bill," Hatch said. "I supported last year's bill, which was based on a redistricting map created by the Utah Legislature, not an at- large seat. This year's bill is very different, and I have concerns about the constitutionality of the at-large proposal because there would be overlapping representation."

A spokeswoman for Bennett has said the constitutional questions from members combined with a veto-threat from the White House make it an "uphill battle."