Bill to give Utah extra House seat dies (again)

WASHINGTON — Its resurrection lasted less than a week.

Democrats on Tuesday once again dumped plans to bring to the House floor this week a bill that would have given the heavily Democratic District of Columbia a permanent, full-rights House seat, and as a political counterweight also temporarily give heavily Republican Utah an extra House seat.

"At this point in time I do not see the ability to move it in this session of Congress," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said in a meeting with reporters, appearing to declare the issue finally and fully dead for the year. However, Eleanor Holmes Norton — D.C.'s nonvoting House delegate — said she was working on alternate strategies.

Norton said it was killed this time by new proposals to add extra-tough, anti-gun control amendments to the bill. Another nail in the coffin, she said, was a vow by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to filibuster to death the House version because he says it would unconstitutionally allow Utahns to vote for two House members this year.

Last week — after a year of delay on the bill — Hoyer said he would bring the bill up for a vote this week. The bill had been delayed because when the Senate passed its version last year, it added an amendment that would erase many of D.C.'s strict gun control laws and its ability to pass any more.

D.C. officials for a year sought a way both to gain a House seat and keep their gun control laws. But last week, several said they figured Congress had enough power to kill its gun-control laws no matter what, so they wanted to salvage the full-rights House seat by moving ahead with the bill.

But Norton said she and Democratic leaders "were shocked and blindsided" to find that gun supporters were planning to add even tougher provisions on the House floor than what the Senate had already added, and found they likely did not have the votes to stop it.

She said those new provisions would stop D.C. from banning guns in schools or government buildings, and would allow guns to be carried almost anywhere either openly or concealed.

"A person in the District would be able to walk on the streets carrying an assault weapon slung over their shoulder or with concealed weapons," she said. "These provisions are so over the top, they are unworthy of serious consideration."

On top of that, she said Hatch's vow to filibuster the bill likely eliminated any chance of getting a final version through the Senate, saying Democrats lack the necessary 60 votes to cut off a filibuster.