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Utah House adopts Plan L redistricting map, rejects amendment tying enactment to federal action
Summary
The Utah House approved Senate Bill 5,001, replacing the February congressional map with 'Plan L' after a debate over an amendment that would have made the map's effectiveness contingent on congressional action regarding the District of Columbia; the bill passed 51'to'1 with five absent.
The Utah House of Representatives approved Senate Bill 5,001 on Dec. 4, 2006, adopting a substitute congressional map known as Plan L and sending the measure back to the Senate. Representative Dave Clark, the bill sponsor, described the result as a bipartisan product of committee travel and public comment and said the House was fulfilling its constitutional responsibility to redraw congressional lines.
"We're here today to fulfill our state constitutional responsibility," Clark said during opening remarks, characterizing Plan L as "a consensus and a bipartisan building" that incorporated community input. He told colleagues the committee had travelled across the state and considered many iterations before settling on Plan L.
Representative Julie Fischer moved Amendment No. 3, dated Dec. 4, 2006, which would have required three actions by Congress before the new redistricting plan would become effective — for example, retrocession of parts of the District of Columbia, statehood for D.C., or a constitutional amendment. Fischer argued the change was a constitutional safeguard. "This is not just a map we're voting on," she said, urging members not to "sell short our nation's most revered document."
Clark and other members opposed attaching federal contingencies to the state's redistricting action, saying the House's role was to substitute Plan A with Plan L and that Congress and federal courts would decide any national constitutional questions. After debate and a successful motion to end debate, the amendment was defeated; the chair announced that the motion failed.
After a final summation by Clark, voting on SB 5,001 closed. The clerk reported 51 yes votes, 19 no votes and five absent, and the bill was passed and returned to the Senate for final approval.
What happens next: the House recorded its approval and referred the bill to the Senate; procedural coordination with Congress could affect when any additional seats authorized by Congress take effect, but the House vote substitutes Plan L for the prior map without the amendment's congressional prerequisites.
