Top D.C. officials protested a House Republican-written funding patch outside the Capitol on Monday, saying the omission of routine language included in prior continuing resolutions could mean a de facto $1 billion budget cut for the city government.
Mayor Muriel Bowser — flanked by Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, members of the D.C. Council and other local officials — said the measure would force cuts to police, public schools, sanitation and other key city services if passed later this week.
Prior congressional stopgaps have included language allowing the city to continue raising and spending local funds under its most recent budget — in this case, for fiscal 2025 — while the federal government operates under the prior year’s levels. With the provision omitted this time, the city would be forced to revert to fiscal 2024 spending levels, requiring drastic cutbacks given the year-to-year rise in labor and other expenses. The city raises the majority of its revenue from local taxes and fees, not federal government subsidies.
“These are not savings for the federal government,” Bowser said. “This is simply damage to the District.” She added that it was a “$1.1 billion mistake.”
Bowser said she has been in touch with the White House staff, as well as Speaker Mike Johnson’s office about the omission of the language. D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, a Democrat like Bowser, said he had spoken separately to senior Republican staff at the House Appropriations Committee, which drafted the bill.
Johnson plans to bring the measure to the floor Tuesday once it clears the House Rules Committee Monday night, where a fix could potentially be applied.
“What we think is, this was a mistake they don’t want to admit to,” Mendelson said. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the panel’s chair, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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