Senate may vote later this month on Utah fourth seat

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate may vote the week of Sept. 17 on whether to grant Utah a fourth House seat, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today.

While a specific floor vote date has not been set, Reid, D.-Nev., said at a meeting with reporters that he was looking to bring the bill to the floor when the Senate reconvenes after the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

"We'll see if we can get the 60 votes," Reid said.

Under Senate rules, controversial bills need to clear a procedural vote that require 60 Senators' support before the bill can continue. Reid's office later clarified that the senator has not yet made a decision whether he will have the bill go through that procedure, but said the week of Sept. 17 is a likely time when the bill would be brought up.

The bill creates a fourth House seat for Utah, as well as a voting House member for the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia seat

would likely go to a Democrat, so the bill's authors paired it with a seat for Utah, which would likely go to a Republican.

Utah missed getting a fourth seat after the 2000 Census but is likely to get a new House seat after the next census in 2010. The bill would allow the state to get the new seat earlier than that, in exchange for allowing the District of Columbia a vote.

The House passed a bill creating an at-large seat for Utah, while the Senate version would give Utah the option to redistrict in time for the 2008 election.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., opposes the bill, saying it is unconstitutional. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said the constitutionality "may or may not be true."

Bennett told the Deseret Morning News editorial board last week that the fourth Congressional seat "is not going to happen."

"The president has said he would veto it, and there are not enough votes for an override," Bennett said.

Bennett, who is a co-sponsor of the Senate bill, along with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he is feeling pressure from McConnell. Bennett, who is a

close adviser to McConnell, plans to offer an amendment that says if at any point the U.S. Supreme Court decides that granting the District of Columbia a House seat means, under the equal protection clause, that it must also have representation in the Senate, then the bill will be repealed.

"I don't want to be part of anything that gives the District of Columbia two senators," Bennett said. If his proposed amendment is defeated, Bennett