D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday the District is pressing Congress to reverse a $1 billion mid-year cut to the city’s budget after it was signed into law as part of a federal stopgap bill this weekend.
Ms. Bowser, a Democrat, said she is throwing her office’s weight behind a Senate-led effort to restore the funds that, if the city is forced to go through with them, could see cuts to police, schools and other services listed in the District’s $21 billion budget.
After President Trump signed the temporary spending bill into law Saturday to avert a government shutdown, the District is technically required to trim $1.3 billion from its budget before the fiscal year ends this fall.
But Ms. Bowser said she is backing a separate bill, which was introduced by Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, that would nix the financial curtailing.
The mayor said she will hold off on announcing any specific programs and services that are being slashed until she has clarity from Congress.
Ms. Bowser said conversations with the Republican-controlled House are ongoing while the lawmakers are in recess until next week. The mayor did note the Senate bill has the support of key Republicans in Mr. Trump and House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma.
“The case has been made that these are D.C. local dollars, that cutting them in the middle of the year would be devastating to our operations and to our shared goals of making our city the best, most beautiful city, and one that serves our residents,” Ms. Bowser said at a briefing in the John A. Wilson building downtown.
“We’re very confident, and we’re going to keep working with the Congress until its final passage,” she said.
Ms. Bowser, who was flanked by nearly the entire D.C. Council, said she and her staff put on a “full court press” to usher the Senate bill to its unanimous passage last Friday.
Besides House Oversight Chairman James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who has forged a working relationship with Ms. Bowser on critical D.C. matters, the mayor did not reveal any other conservative lawmakers whom her team is trying to pull to their side.
The House originally passed the temporary spending bill, called a continuing resolution, early last week by a narrow 217-213 margin.
The bill called for removing a special provision that allows the city to fund its day-to-day operations even when Democrats and Republicans are at odds over federal spending.
Without the provision, the District is held to the same budgeting standards as a federal agency, who were all instructed to limit their spending to the previous fiscal year’s levels.
D.C. officials said cuts could include more than $350 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 Emergency Medical Services and $28 million from the city’s Department of Human Services.
According to a report from D.C. Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee, much of the $1.3 billion increase in this year’s budget comes from an additional $351 million for city schools, $208 million for Metro transit, $109 million for Human Services and a $118 million debt payment.
The remainder of the increased budget stems from $81 million for police, $64 million in retirement for police officers and firefighters, $55 million for the Department of Health Care Finance, $40 million for Fire and EMS and $31 million for teacher retirements.
The budget cuts mark another instance of House Republicans targeting the District with legislation.
One bill introduced last month sought to eliminate the mayor and city council positions by overturning the D.C. Home Rule Act, while another threatened to withhold federal funding over a huge “Black Lives Matter” road mural. Ms. Bowser ordered the mural’s removal earlier this month.
Ms. Collins referred to the stopgap bill not having the provision protecting the District’s budget as a “mistake” last week on Capitol Hill.
Ms. Bowser demurred when asked whether the provision’s removal had been intentional.
