4th-seat bill is likely stalled for 2 weeks

WASHINGTON — Utah and the District of Columbia will have to wait two more weeks for any further action from the House on a bill that would create a fourth seat for Utah and grant voting rights to the district's representative.

Congress is about to go on its two-week spring break after votes on Friday, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the Utah/D.C. vote bill will go on the calendar the week of April 16, his office confirmed Wednesday.

Utah's fourth seat — likely to go to a Republican — is included in the bill as a way to balance out the district's likely Democratic vote.

Advocates for voting rights in the district want the vote to come before Congress adjourns for the recess, but Hoyer's office said Wednesday it is not likely to come up.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said she "appreciated" Hoyer's deadline to get the bill back on the floor as soon as possible.

"Because of the priority Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer have given D.C. voting rights, the bill is essentially done," Norton said. "Republican procedural game-playing cannot defeat a principled and bipartisan voting-rights bill for 650,000 Americans. We don't get mad — but we do get even."

The bill was expected to pass last week, but a last-minute effort by Republican opponents would have forced a vote on removing the district's gun ban — putting Democrats in the awkward position of having to approve voting rights but standing against gun control at the same time.

DC Vote, an advocacy group for the voting right, has a rally and march scheduled for April 16. Those events are getting increased attention due to the delay in the bill's passage, according to organizers.