The Senate on Friday passed a bipartisan fix to prevent an immediate $1.1 billion cut to the Washington, D.C.’s budget, sending the measure to the House to prevent an imminent slashing of programs.
Washington’s financial fate was thrust into the center of the political debate after Republicans in the House did not include a standard Washington provision in the short-term funding bill, forcing the city to adhere to the same freeze to its local budget that they are applying to other federal agencies.
Since the House passed the continuing resolution and left town on Tuesday, the Senate had no opportunity to amend the bill as it was written, forcing the district to return to the lower spending levels in its budget approved by Congress in 2024. Senators opted to pass by voice vote a stand-alone bill, putting pressure on their colleagues in the House to do the same once they return to the nation’s capital.
“This legislation will make sure that we take care of the residents of the district. It will support law enforcement and firefighters and teachers and city services,” Schumer said on the Senate floor ahead of a vote on a government funding bill on Friday. “We urge the House to act quickly.”
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) filed the stand-alone bill that would allow DC’s 2025 budget to move forward without disruption. Van Hollen said he believes House Republicans deliberately left out the language.
“This doesn’t save the taxpayer one cent, what it does is deny the people of Washington D.C. through their elected representatives, the ability to make decisions on how much they want to invest in schools or police and by capping that from Congress,” Van Hollen said. “You’re essentially saying Congress wants to run the District of Columbia.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, told reporters on Thursday that she viewed the cuts to Washington’s budget as a “serious problem.” Previous spending bills have contained language that said Washington is allowed to spend its local budget.
“I support that language. I have no idea why the House left it out,” she said.
In a memo sent to members of Congress, the district stressed that the majority of their budget “is made up of locally generated revenues.” Only about a quarter comes from “federal grants that all other states received.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said the cut would hurt the city’s general funds budget, describing it as “solely supported” by the district’s “locally raised taxes, fees and fines.”
“So far, DC has expended, obligated or encumbered $6.3 billion, which is 48 percent of the total local appropriation,” the memo said. “If we now had to reduce local spending by $1.1 billion it would require a 16 percent cut to all remaining funds that are not expended.”
Bowser has undertaken several moves favorable to Trump in recent weeks, helping to soften his views after criticizing the district’s crime rates and saying he wants to “take over D.C.” He has since shelved a floated executive order to end Washington’s home rule.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) office did not immediately respond with a statement regarding whether the House will take up the legislation when they return on March 24. The White House signaled it would support a Washington funding fix, according to reporting from Semafor.
House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee released a statement on Wednesday vowing to provide “additional resources to support the District of Columbia with respect to ensuring the security of public events, as well as responding to terrorist threats or attacks, remain,” though it acknowledged that “for the remainder of the fiscal year, this bill holds D.C. at [fiscal 2024 funding] levels, like the rest of the federal government.”
“The House Appropriations Committee has been assured that D.C. will continue to have a balanced budget,” they wrote. “Given the impact a government shutdown would have on D.C. and the nation, House Republicans took steps to avert one.”
All week, local leaders warned the omission of the provision approving the district’s budget in the government funding measure would force dramatic cuts to essential services and the most immediate target for the cuts would likely be the salaries of teachers, police officers and city workers.
“The impact is on public safety, on police, on fire, on public education, our schools, our charter schools, on the cleanliness of our city, on housing, on dealing with homelessness, on all these issues that would be adversely affected,” said Phil Mendelson, District of Columbia Council chairman, during a press conference on Capitol Hill this week.
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The impacts were expected to be far-reaching — Metro could lose millions of dollars in funding, which could trigger job cuts, according to reporting from NBC Washington. Major economic development projects like the renovation of the Capital One Arena, which is in the beginning stages of renovation, could take a hit as a result of the spending bill.
The threat of the cuts came on top of anticipated economic pain in the city as a result of Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s drastic cuts to the federal workforce, which is likely to have a disproportionate impact in the nation’s capital.
The district’s chief financial officer predicts the city will lose $1 billion in reduced revenue between now and the end of fiscal 2028. “So far, DC has expended, obligated or encumbered $6.3 billion, which is 48% of the total local appropriation,” the note stated. “If we now had to reduce local spending by $1.1 billion it would require a 16% cut to all remaining funds that are not expended.”