Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) on Monday sounded alarm over what she described as a “$1.1 billion problem” in a plan rolled out by House Republicans to keep the government funded beyond a Friday shutdown deadline and into September.
In remarks outside of Congress on Monday afternoon, Bowser called on lawmakers to change the language in the stopgap plan, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), to prevent the District from being forced to revert to the previous fiscal year’s funding levels.
Bowser said the plan would “immediately have the effect of cutting $1 billion” out of D.C.’s budget.
“In the most recent continuing resolution language, it ignores our already congressionally approved fiscal 2025 budget,” she said. “Instead, it would peg us at FY24 levels — the levels that federal agencies are [at] because they do not have an approved FY 25 budget.”
“But we are not a federal agency,” she said. “We are a city, county, state all at once, and we provide direct services to the people of the District of Columbia, visitors to the District of Columbia, businesses in the District of Columbia, diplomats and visiting heads of state and everyone who works here in the Congress.”
In previous stopgap legislation, Congress included language that would allow the District to spend at the levels set as part of its fiscal year 2025 budget.
“The CR omitted a longstanding provision that would allow D.C. to continue spending its local fiscal year 2025 budget and instead treats D.C. as a federal agency forcing the district to revert to spending at fiscal year 2024 levels for the remainder of the year,” Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said Monday.
Her comments come as Republicans move quickly to pass the legislation ahead of the looming Friday deadline.
In lieu of a bipartisan agreement from Congress to update government funding levels, Republicans are pushing to pass a stopgap that would freeze government funding at fiscal year 2024 levels, with some increases for defense programs and cuts to some non-defense programs.
The bill also includes some add-ons in line with requested anomalies from the White House.
During the press conference on Monday, Bowser said she had been in touch with the White House on the matter. But it remains unclear if the move was intentional.
“They are aware of what’s happening at the Congress, and we’ve asked for their help,” she said. But when asked if the White House indicated they would help on D.C.’s behalf, the mayor added, “I think they’ve indicated that it didn’t come from them.”
In remarks on Monday, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said, “A lot of that stuff, again, was inaugural stuff, like extra police” when pressed on the matter.
“I mean, I have to go through and look at it in more detail than I have,” he also told The Hill, noting it’s “not a huge part” of ongoing conversations. He also said that the overall spending levels being discussed run north of $1 trillion, adding: “I’m sorry if everything wasn’t perfect, and I’m sorry the Democrats weren’t on the table to talk to us, but it just is what it is.”
A Democratic-backed effort for consideration of an amendment to allow D.C. to continue to spend under the fiscal year 2025 levels was blocked in a party-line vote as the House Rules Committee considered the funding bill on Monday.
The amendment also sought to prevent D.C. from shutting down in the fiscal year 2026, which begins in October, if Congress misses its next expected, self-imposed shutdown deadline and triggers a funding lapse.
“The September CR, introduced by Chairman Cole, allowed DC to spend at the levels of their proposed fiscal year 2025 budget. The December CR, introduced by Chairman Cole, allowed DC to spend at those same levels,” Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said as he made the case for the amendment pushed by Norton. “Now, after telling DC their spending at these levels has been fined for six months, this Republican CR is telling them to go back to fiscal year 2024 spending levels.
“This will result in a cut to the district spending by more than $940 million, close to a billion dollars. Law enforcement, cops and safety will be cut by nearly $240 million, education by nearly $400 million. These cuts will be devastating and through no fault of the district,” McGovern said. “And let me remind you that this is DC’s money. It’s not federally funded.”
“It’s funded by D.C. businesses and residents, residents who do not have a vote in the Congress, I might add,” he said.
