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The residents of the District of Columbia deserve a vote in Congress.
So, it makes sense after decades of debate for Congress to approve a measure recently passed out of the House Government Reform Committee, especially since it would also give the state of Utah a fourth congressional seat.
The measure would permanently increase the size of the House of Representatives by two to 437 members. One seat would go to Washington, D.C., which would assuredly, by nature of the District's political makeup, elect a democrat. In the past, that's been a huge partisan stumbling block. To balance that, it is proposed that Utah, which is in line for a fourth seat following the 2010 census, would get an at-large seat now. It's a virtual lock Utah's new seat would go to a republican.
Supporters see it as a "no partisan gain and no partisan disadvantage" approach to resolving a sticky issue. The citizens of the District, after all, pay taxes, they fight in the nation's wars, and they reside in the very shadow of the seat of world democracy essentially without direct representation.
Indeed, District residents deserve this most fundamental right - a vote in Congress! And Utah with its rapidly expanding population would benefit from greater representation in a system where seniority matters, sooner rather than later.
