4th seat faces lots of hurdles
The bill's supporters remain optimistic it will go through this session but there are many "ifs" that need to turn into certainties before potential candidates should start mulling campaign slogans.
Congress is now in recess until Nov. 9, but will likely remain in session only until Nov. 17 before lawmakers go home for Thanksgiving. It is not clear how long it will be in session in December, if at all.
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., has no formal date set for a special session of the Utah Legislature to consider redistricting the state into four congressional districts, said spokesman Mike Mower, but he will consider calling a special session after the Nov. 7 election.
The original bill, which contains a voting House member for the District of Columbia, and an at-large seat for Utah, passed the House Government Reform Committee earlier this year.
But the bill also needs to pass the House Judiciary Committee before it can go to the full House for a vote and then on to the Senate for consideration.
House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., does not like the at-large component of the bill and wants to see Utah sign off on splitting the state into fourth districts before he will consider the bill.
• Governor calls special session
• Utah legislators agree on a four-district map to include a new fourth district
• Sensenbrenner agrees to take up the bill in the House Judiciary Committee
• The House Judiciary Committee passes the bill
• The House passes the bill
• The Senate puts the bill on its schedule
• The Senate passes the bill
• President Bush signs bill into law
Each step on its own can take more time than the process would allow at this point. If the bill does not pass by the time Congress adjourns, it will need to be introduced at the start of the next Congress in January. Even if the House passed the bill, it would hit the Senate at the same time it would be finishing up the 2007 budget, which would be more than a month overdue at that point, so where it would fit in the schedule might be hard to figure out.
Ilir Zherka, executive director of DC Vote, knows the list of actions remaining in the bill is long, but he compares it to the Voting Rights Act amendments signed by the president earlier this year. Zherka said it took years to get the consensus on the bill, but it passed within three days and was signed into law after lawmakers reached the consensus.
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