Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he would support advancing the House-passed continuing resolution, but he also wants Washington, D.C.’s, local budget restored if cuts are made in the GOP stopgap.
The stopgap spending bill passed in the House earlier this week would cut the local D.C. government’s 2025 budget by 16%. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other local officials have denounced the cuts and called on Congress to reconsider them.
Schumer told reporters Thursday that he wants to fix the “mistake” of cuts to D.C.’s budget and is willing to work with Republicans on an amendment to the stopgap or a standalone bill.
“A number of [Republicans] have said that they realize it was a mistake, and I think we can and I’d work with them to fix it,” Schumer said, according to the Washington Post. “We’d have to figure out the best way. You could do it with amendments, you could do it with a standalone bill — if they really want to do it.”
Because the House is in recess until March 24, an amendment to the stopgap appears unlikely, with a government shutdown deadline looming at the end of Friday.
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Earlier this week, Bowser called the cuts to the D.C. budget a “potentially devastating and really highly unusual situation.” She also pleaded for the restoration of funds by invoking President Donald Trump’s bid to improve the capital city.
“This action, let me be clear, if the Congress goes through with this action, it will work against a priority that President Trump and I share, and that is to make Washington, D.C., the best, most beautiful city in the world, and we want to work with our partners in the federal government to ensure that D.C. always represents the strength and prosperity of this country,” she said.