D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday urged Congress to revise its proposed spending bill that would require the District to cut just over $1 billion from its city budget before the end of the fiscal year.
Joined on Capitol Hill by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s non-voting member of Congress, and nearly the entire D.C. Council, Ms. Bowser asked lawmakers to change the bill’s language so the District is not held to the same budgeting standards as federal agencies.
The mayor suggested that, if the federal spending bill were to become law, it would force the city to make frenzied cuts to the Metropolitan Police Department, D.C. Public Schools and the Health and Human Services before the current fiscal year expires Sept. 30.
“There’s no way to cut that kind of money, in the kind of time that we would have in this fiscal year, not to affect police or not to affect teachers and not to affect some of the basic government services that allow us to keep our city clean, safe and beautiful,” Ms. Bowser said.
The congressional bill would compel the District to make $1.1 billion in cuts in order to balance its budget, which the city is legally required to do.
Ms. Bowser didn’t say how dramatic the potential cuts would be, but she said the three agencies she singled out are the three biggest expenditures for the District.
Congress’ proposed continuing resolution comes less than a week after the mayor shared a grim revenue outlook for the city.
City officials said the White House’s desire to trim the size of the federal government is forecasted to cut D.C.’s tax revenues by over $300 million in the next three years.
It’s another instance where Ms. Bowser finds herself playing defense against a Republican-controlled Congress.
Earlier Monday, work crews in the District scrubbed a sprawling “Black Lives Matter” mural from 16th Street Northwest.
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.
Republicans in Congress have also proposed bills revoking the Home Rule Act, which allows the city residents to elect a mayor and city council to handle 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.
