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D.C. Vote Bill Gets Key GOP Support
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, left, with Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, predicted that Hatch's support would "lead to the breakthrough we've been searching for."
(By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)
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In addition, the Senate bill takes effect with the 2008 elections, rather than with the current Congress. That provision addressed concerns that Utah representatives would have to raise money to run in special elections in new districts.
If the Senate measure passes, the differences with the House legislation would have to be worked out in conference.
A recent Washington Post poll found that 61 percent of Americans think the District should have a full voting member in the House. The poll found that reaction is mixed to the idea of pairing a new D.C. seat with an extra seat for Utah.
Lieberman, a longtime champion of D.C. voting rights, had expected to shepherd the House bill through the Senate. But his plans were temporarily derailed last month when the Senate parliamentarian ruled that the measure should go to the Finance Committee because it contained a minor tweak of the tax code to pay for the new House seats.
To get around that issue, Lieberman and Hatch didn't include tax language in their legislation.
Lieberman and Hatch will have to get 60 votes to avoid a filibuster by Republicans, which would kill the bill. Lieberman predicted that most Democrats would support it. On the Republican side, Hatch said that Utah's junior senator, Robert F. Bennett (R), would co-sponsor the bill.
Asked whether he would talk to President Bush about approving the bill, Hatch said: "You bet."
Utah fell 856 people short of getting an extra House seat after the 2000 Census. The state protested that it had been shortchanged because the census didn't count thousands of Mormon missionaries working abroad.
The bill would give Utah the seat and an extra electoral vote until 2012, when redistricting takes place based on the 2010 Census. The legislation would permanently raise the number of House seats to 437.
