4th-seat bill now in Senate

WASHINGTON — The fight for Utah's potential fourth seat in Congress moves to the Senate today as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., introduce the bill that creates the new seat and grants voting rights for the District of Columbia.

The bill passed the House last month — without the support of Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah — but still faces constitutional concerns from some lawmakers and a potential veto threat from the White House.

Bishop supports Utah getting a fourth seat but did not like the way the bill has changed since it was first introduced. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, also supports a fourth seat for Utah but will study the Senate bill once it's introduced, according to his office.

The Office of Management and Budget released a "statement of administration policy" in March saying the president's advisers would recommend he veto the bill. But Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, both doubt Bush would veto it if it came to his desk.

The Senate Republican Conference sent a memo in March saying the bill "presents more problems than it solves."

"With the more than likely possibility of constitutional challenges and lengthy court battles, both to the D.C. seat as well as to the Utah at-large one, D.C. residents would undoubtedly remain in limbo for many years to come regarding their rights to federal representation," according to the eight-page Republican Conference memo.

The bill creates an at-large district for Utah, which would likely go to a Republican, as a way to balance out a voting member in the House for the District of Columbia, which leans Democratic.

The bill's opponents question whether Congress can grant the District a vote because it a not a state or whether Utah's at-large district violates the "one man, one vote" principle established by the Supreme Court.

"Essentially, this would provide every Utahn two members of Congress, compared to one for every other American in the other 49 states," the Republican memo said. "Each voter in Utah would have greater representation (2 Members) compared to every voter in every other state (1 Member). This inequality would cause the voters of Utah to have a disproportionately larger voting power compared to voters in all of the other states."

The memo says the bill would be "essentially transforming that Member into a Senator in the House of Representatives" and could cause problems related to constituent services.

But the Congressional Research Service released a report in March that the bill would not violate the "one man, one vote" principle because "each Utah voter would have the opportunity to vote both for a candidate to represent his or her congressional district as well as for a candidate to represent the state at-large."

"Each person's vote for an at-large candidate would not affect the value of his or her vote for a candidate representing a congressional district," according to the Congressional Research Service report. "Further, each person's vote for an at-large candidate would not affect the value of his or her vote for a candidate representing a congressional district."

Congressional Research Service Legislative Attorney L. Paige Whitaker said in the report that the Constitution allows Congress to regulate congressional election so a temporary at-large congressional district "would likely be upheld as constitutional."

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