Senators Joe Lieberman and Orrin Hatch have once again introduced legislation that would provide the District of Columbia a full voting member in the House of Representatives. Their bill would also give Utah a fourth congressional district, increasing the number of House members by two to 437.

A similar bill passed the House easily in April 2007 but failed to garner the necessary 60 votes in the Senate.

"This is the fifth session in which I have introduced legislation to try to correct what I believe is a fundamental wrong," Mr. Lieberman said from the Senate floor on Tuesday. "With a new Congress and a new President -- who was a cosponsor of this bill himself last year -- I am hopeful that we can pass this legislation vital to the rights of the nearly 600,000 Americans living in the District of Columbia."

Utah, based on its population increase, is next in line to gain a congressional district after the upcoming decennial Census, which would normally mean reducing representation in a state that has lost relative population. The Lieberman-Hatch alternative would instead create an additional seat for the heavily Republican state, balancing the partisan weight of the District of Columbia, which has never voted for a Republican for president. Mr. Lieberman hopes the quid pro quo will bring along enough wary Republicans for the provision finally to be enacted in the new Congress. President-elect Barack Obama's past support for the bill is a good sign for its passage as well.