SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Democrat-controlled Illinois House approved a new congressional map Monday that attempts to erase Republican gains made in last year’s election.

The 63-54 vote sends the map to the Illinois Senate, where the Democrat majority is virtually guaranteed to pass it and send it on to Gov. Pat Quinn over the strenuous objections of Republican lawmakers.

Illinois must adopt a congressional map with 18, instead of 19, U.S. House seats because the latest census showed slowing population growth in the state. Democrats are in charge of the once-a-decade redistricting process because they control the state Legislature and governor’s office.

That gives them the chance to put freshmen Republicans into unfriendly districts. The proposed map lumps at least four freshman Republicans and one veteran into districts where they would have to run against other incumbents for the next election. They would be forced to compete in primaries, contend in Democrat-friendly districts or find another district to run in to try to keep a seat in Congress. The map includes two open districts where it appears no current member of Congress lives.

Lawmakers are rushing to approve the congressional map before Tuesday’s scheduled end of the legislative session. If lawmakers go into overtime, Republicans will get a say in the map because new rules kick in and more than a simple majority will be needed to pass it.

Democrats have worked hard not to stray from what sounds like a script when talking about their map, likely so as not to give Republicans ammunition for any future legal challenge of the map.

“A good map, a solid map and certainly an eminently fair map,” said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat.

Republican lawmakers disagreed.

Rep. Michael Fortner of West Chicago, the top Republican on the House redistricting committee, said census figures suggest that there should be more than one majority Latino congressional district among Illinois’ 18 districts. Fortner said that based on voting-age population, Illinois should expect to have two or maybe three heavily Latino districts.

“There has been tremendous growth, in fact, I think it is fair to say that without the growth of the Latino population in Illinois we would have lost two congressional seats,” Fortner said.

The number of people who identified themselves as Hispanic grew at a rate of 32.5 percent in the latest census.

The proposed congressional map has one district with a Latino voting-age population of nearly 66 percent. Two other districts have Latino voting-age populations of about 22 percent and another district has almost 25 percent.

The map has three majority black districts.