Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, knows the list of actions remaining in the bill is long, but he compares it to the Voting Rights Act amendments signed by the president earlier this year. Zherka said it took years to get the consensus on the bill, but it passed within three days and was signed into law after lawmakers reached the consensus.

He said the biggest momentum will be the Utah redistricting. He believes the bill would pass the committee and the House quickly.

"I can't see the Republican leadership resisting it," he said.

Zherka said his group has urged the Utah congressional delegation and the governor to take up working on a four-district plan to satisfy any concerns that redistricting would be done unfairly after the bill has passed.

He said that there are some lawmakers who had concerns that once the bill is passed, maps would be changed, so getting the districting done before voting on the bill would calm those fears.

Reaching that consensus might be difficult as the Democrats and Republicans blame each other for stopping the bill.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said he will vote in favor of any measure that to give Utah a fourth seat, whether it is for an at-large seat or for four new districts.

He stressed that the at-large seat was the original compromise and has already been voted on but Sensenbrenner was the one who wanted to change it to four districts.

Matheson will not comment on the maps proposed by Huntsman, Jr. last month, saying he will "not endorse any map."

"Elected officials shouldn't be picking their constituents," Matheson said. "I don't think members of Congress should be looking for safe seats."

He would rather see an independent commission do it the redistricting.

Matheson's spokeswoman Alyson Heyrend also points out that there is no guarantee Sensenbrenner will even take up the bill even if the Utah legislators approve the map.

"Why should we take the original compromise off the table?" Heyrend said. "Why undo all of the work because one person has voiced objection?"

An aide on the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee said as long as everyone is in agreement on the bill, the Democrats will support it, but everyone is following Washington, D.C., Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton's lead, who is making sure Matheson is agreeable to the plan and whatever map is drawn.

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, said Matheson would have to do more than say he will vote for a four-district plan. He would have to convince Sensenbrenner and fellow Democrats that he was on board with the plan before a vote would occur in the "narrow window" of time remaining.

"At some point he has to say this is a map I want," Cannon said.

Cannon said the real problem is that Republicans would not want to approve two likely-to-be Democrat spots and one Republican one.