Senate declines to consider bill that would have created fourth congressional seat for Utah

WASHINGTON — Utah may have to wait until after the 2010 Census to get an additional House seat, after the Senate opted not to debate a bill today that would have created the fourth congressional seat for Utah and granted a House vote to the District of Columbia.

With a 57 to 42 vote, the measure failed to get the 60 votes needed under procedural rules for Senators to start debate on the bill.

But supporters are saying the game is not over yet.

"I am not discouraged," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who acknowledged that the bill likely will not come up again before 2008. But he is not ruling out that the measure may come up again next year.

The procedural vote did not reject the bill outright. The vote indicated that the bill lacked a sufficient number of senators who agreed that the measure should be debated on the Senate floor.

The bill includes a fourth seat for Utah that would likely go to a Republican to balance out a House seat for the District, which likely would go to a Democrat. Utah missed getting an additional seat after the 2000 Census, so the bill's authors saw the bill as a way to right two wrongs: District of Columbia residents would get a vote in Congress, and Utah would get a fourth congressional representative to correct what the state claimed was an improper population count in the Census.

The House has already passed its version of the bill.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Monday called the legislation "clearly and unambiguously unconstitutional." Sen. Bob Bennett,

R-Utah, a close adviser of the Republican leader, said McConnell's argument was good enough to keep many Republicans from voting for the bill.

"Basically it wasn't a surprise," Bennett said of today's vote. "I never thought we had 60."

Bennett said the vote has little negative effect on Utah.

"It means, Wait until the next Census," Bennett said.

But Hatch said he will continue to push the bill to get Utah a House seat earlier than 2012, when a new member gained from the 2010 Census would be

elected. He said that although it is likely the state would get a new member anyway, "it's not a lock," and anything to get the state additional representation earlier would provide benefits for Utah.

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