Senate vote could lead to 4th seat

WASHINGTON — A Senate vote this afternoon could determine whether Utah will be given a fourth House seat and District of Columbia residents will get a voting House member — but constitutional questions still linger.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Monday he would rather see a constitutional amendment grant a House vote to the district and not the pending bill.

The legislation creates a fourth House seat for Utah. It likely would go to a Republican to balance out a House seat for the district, which likely would go to a Democrat. The House has already passed its version of the bill.

McConnell stressed his opposition to the bill "should in no way be interpreted as opposition to the enfranchisement of any constitutionally eligible American."

"My opposition to this bill rests instead on a single all-important fact: It is clearly and unambiguously unconstitutional," McConnell said. "It contravenes what the framers wrote, what they intended, what the courts have always held, and the way Congress has always acted in the past."

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who is a co-sponsor of the bill, plans to offer two amendments to the bill. One would allow Utah to keep its new fourth seat even if the Supreme Court declares the district's seat unconstitutional.

"Utah deserves its full representation, regardless of whether the Supreme Court rules that the D.C. clause is unconstitutional," Bennett said.

Under his other amendment, if the Supreme Court decides under the Equal Protection Clause that the district also deserves two senators, it would cancel out the House seat.

"For a single city to have the status of a state in the U.S. Senate is unacceptable under the Constitution," Bennett said.

Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, a voting rights advocacy group, said he sees the constitutional arguments as a "smoke screen" for their bigger concern of the bill serving as a "stepping stone" to the district getting two senators. He said he was surprised by the amount of opposition to the bill in the Senate because the bill spells out that it is just for a House seat.

Before Bennett can even offer his amendments, the Senate must vote on whether it should take up the bill.

Under the Senate's rules, senators will vote this afternoon on whether to stop debate on a "motion to proceed" on the bill. If 60 senators vote to stop debate, they agree to vote on the bill, so Bennett — and anyone else — would get a chance to offer his amendments. If the motion does not get 60 votes, the "bill is dead," Bennett said.