4th-seat bill is rejected

WASHINGTON — Utah may have to wait until after the 2010 Census to gain an additional House seat. The Senate rejected a bill Tuesday that would have created a fourth congressional seat for Utah and a House vote for the District of Columbia.

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

But supporters say the game is not over.

"I am not discouraged," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who acknowledged that the bill likely will not come up again before 2008. However, he won't rule out the possibility that the measure may resurface 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.

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

The House already has 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 supporting the bill. President Bush also had vowed to veto the bill, saying that granting the district a congressional vote was unconstitutional.

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

Eight Republicans, including Utah's two senators, voted for the bill, which also was favored by Democrats. Only one Democrat — Sen. Max Baucus of Montana — voted against the bill.

Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, a voting-rights advocacy group, said he was surprised to hear Baucus had concerns. Zherka had a 61-vote count Tuesday morning. He said he was disappointed that Sens. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., voted against the bill. He had counted them as supporters.

"They switched their votes," Zherka said.