"It's not about Utah." Cannon said, "Utah happens to be the state that would get the next vote and that's convenient. This is about how we govern ourselves in America."

Matheson said the seat was "long deserved."

"Another seat would give us added clout in Washington, D.C., on so many issues important to Utah families," Matheson said. "It's a step forward, after some unfortunate partisan attempts to block progress."

The bill was originally debated and set for a vote last month, but Republicans tacked on a gun control measure just before the vote, forcing Democrats to postpone it until a later time. During Thursday's debate, Democrats wrote the rules on the debate in a way that eliminated the chance for the gun measure to be added again by splitting the bill into separate parts. One bill created the new voting members while another bill found a way to pay for them.

But Bishop — and the rest of the Utah House members — took issue with a tax increase the Democrats crafted to help pay for the new member. As part of the Democrats rule that all bills must be paid for before they can be pasted, they attached a bill with a tax percentage change to those making $5 million a year or more. Under the House rules, that bill needed to pass in order for the bill allowing for the two new votes to move forward.

All three of Utah's House members voted against that bill, but it still passed 216-203, allowing the measure to move to the Senate.

Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said the bill's supporters do not need the 60 votes required to break a filibuster in the Senate.

"We need two votes," Norton said. "They are the votes of Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, because if they come forward and press this bill strongly as they should because their residents want it as much as mine, then out of senatorial courtesy they can get the Senate. It should be easier in the Senate."

But while Utah's Republican senators support a fourth seat for Utah, they acknowledge there is a fight ahead in the Senate.

"It's not clear that we would have the votes to pass the House bill," Hatch said. "I supported last year's bill, which was based on a redistricting map created by the Utah Legislature, not an at-large seat. This year's bill is very different, and I have concerns about the constitutionality of the at-large proposal because there would be overlapping representation."

A spokeswoman for Bennett has said the constitutional questions from members combined with a veto-threat from the White House make it an "uphill battle."

The White House has said advisers will recommend Bush to veto the bill, but Norton said "that has been said a number of times on a number of bills that the president has signed."