President Trump pressed House Republicans to “immediately” advance legislation that would fix cuts to the District of Columbia’s budget.
Mr. Trump’s plea on Friday comes after the Senate passed the measure to reverse roughly $1 billion in cuts from D.C.’s budget that were baked into the House GOP-authored government funding extension.
The stopgap bill, or continuing resolution in Capitol Hill jargon, effectively considered the city a federal agency after lawmakers didn’t include a longstanding provision that gives D.C. officials control over funding levels.
The president pitched the funding fix as an extension of his campaign promise to bolster law enforcement to make D.C. “CLEAN and SAFE again!”
“We need our Great Police back on the street, with no excuses from the Mayor, or anyone else,” Mr. Trump said in a new social media post. “The House should take up the D.C. funding ‘fix’ that the Senate has passed, and get it done IMMEDIATELY.”
“We need to clean up our once beautiful Capital City, and make it beautiful again,” he continued. “We will be TOUGH ON CRIME, like never before. I will work with the Mayor on this and, if it does not happen, will have no choice but to do it myself. Washington, D.C., will be better, safer, and more beautiful than ever before!”
The Republican-authored continuing resolution keeps federal funding largely flat for federal agencies, which would require that D.C. revert to its budget for fiscal 2024. That decision would force D.C. officials to slash the city’s budget by $1.1 billion for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
D.C. officials warned that spending cut would hit a variety of services, including millions of dollars gutted from the Metropolitan Police Department, public and charter schools, Metro transit, D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, and the city’s Department of Human Services.
Senators viewed the funding snafu as a mistake and moved to fix the discrepancy fast after passing the yearlong stopgap bill this month.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, hasn’t put the bill on the floor since lawmakers returned Monday from a weeklong recess. That could stem from concerns that the measure wouldn’t have the votes to pass.
The Washington Times reached out to the speaker’s office for comment.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, said during a press conference on Thursday that Senate Republicans “have clearly and unequivocally expressed support for the spending legislation.”
“Senate Democrats, House Democrats, apparently Donald Trump himself, has expressed support for the need to correct this egregious error that was in the House Republican, highly partisan spending bill, and so it needs to happen,” he said.
Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus led by Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland Republican, have wanted to delay the funding fix to finish work on a bicameral budget blueprint for Mr. Trump’s agenda, then shift to adding requirements for the funding fix.
Mr. Harris said in a statement to The Times that lawmakers “should use this opportunity to make certain that D.C. isn’t wasting money on ideas like DEI or reparations.”
He added, “The Constitution clearly gives oversight of the District to Congress, and we should use that constitutional oversight authority to make sure that D.C. is spending its money to Make D.C. Great Again, instead of on their usual woke agenda.”
