D.C. leaders on Wednesday pressed Congress to eliminate a $1 billion midyear cut to the city’s budget included in a federal spending bill, saying the financial rug pull will imperil the District’s staffing for police and emergency responders and funds for public schools.
Mayor Muriel Bowser and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, both Democrats, said they would keep hounding the Republican-controlled Congress after the House passed a stopgap bill that would force the District to trim $1.1 billion from its budget before the fiscal year ends this fall.
“The proposed one billion [dollar] cut to DC’s budget is senseless, reckless and would have devastating consequences for our nation’s capital, impacting public safety, education, and essential services,” the mayor’s office said in a statement to The Washington Times. “We will continue to fight tirelessly in the Senate to ensure the District can continue to operate under our congressionally approved FY25 budget.”
D.C. officials said cuts could include $300 million from the city’s public and charter schools, $216 million from Metro transit, $75 million from the Metropolitan Police Department, $38 million from D.C. Fire and EMS and $28 million from the city’s Department of Human Services, among others.
These agencies are targets for cuts because much of the city’s $21 billion budget is tied up in contracts, leases and Medicaid. The funds for those commitments would take longer to access before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
“This CR is a radical departure from decades of congressional practice that would have devastating consequences for the District,” said Ms. Norton, who is the District’s nonvoting member of Congress. “It amounts to nothing less than an act of fiscal sabotage against D.C., and is an abuse of power over a disenfranchised jurisdiction — the consequences be damned.”
The temporary spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, can be changed by the Senate, but any revision would have to be sent back to the House for approval.
That would be difficult: House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told lawmakers to return to their home states following Tuesday’s vote. It’s a hardball Washington tactic to compel the Senate to pass the bill or risk being blamed for shutting down the federal government.
The Senate could vote on the continuing resolution as early as Wednesday. Congress must pass the proposal and President Trump must sign it into law before midnight Friday to avoid a government shutdown.
The political maneuvers make the prospective cuts to the District’s budget more likely, which came about after lawmakers removed a special provision in the bill allowing the District to fund city operations even when Democrats and Republicans are at odds over federal spending.
Without the two-decade-old provision, the bill holds the District to the same standards as federal agencies. The continuing resolution would require agencies to revert their budgets to 2024 levels.
City lawmakers argued that the majority of the money in the District’s budget — nearly 75% — comes from local tax revenue.
If the spending bill is signed into law, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, a Democrat, said the $1 billion would not be sent back to the federal government. Instead, it would be frozen and sitting in a “bank.”
House Republicans on Tuesday didn’t seem swayed by the District’s warnings of drastic cuts.
“We don’t need their votes, and we’re not gonna have it,” said Rep. Ralph Normam, South Carolina Republican, according to WTTG-TV. “Wouldn’t firing D.C. cops make this city less safe? They’re not gonna fire D.C. cops — that’s not right.”
Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland Republican and chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told the station that the District “should be concerned about running an efficient government that delivers public safety.”
The budget battle is the latest episode where the District finds itself playing defense against Republicans in Congress and the White House.
On Monday, work crews in the District scrubbed a sprawling “Black Lives Matter” mural from 16th Street NW. The mural, long a bone of contention with GOP lawmakers in Washington, was the subject of a recently introduced bill that threatened to pull federal funds from the city if it remained.
Congressional Republicans have also proposed bills to revoke the Home Rule Act of 1973, which allows the city residents to elect a mayor and city council to govern over local matters. Both offices would be abolished if the bill were to become law, and control of the District’s day-to-day operations would be turned over to Congress.
Mr. Trump, for his part, has harangued the District to clear homeless encampments and crack down on criminals.
The District last week did clear out an encampment near the State Department, two days after the president posted on social media about the tents outside the federal building.
City officials announced additional encampment clearances in coming weeks.
As for crime, the city’s top federal prosecutor Ed Martin issued a memo this month that all ex-felons caught with guns will face tougher punishment.
Mr. Martin, a Trump loyalist who defended clients charged with participating in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, directed prosecutors to charge all armed ex-felons in federal court as opposed to local D.C. Superior Court.
Ex-felons convicted in federal gun possession cases can be sentenced to prison for five to nine years. In Superior Court, critics accused prosecutors of allowing defendants to plead down to less serious charges that often resulted in little jail time.
