Congress is poised to pass a Trump-approved funding bill this week. DC officials warn that it will lead to a $1 billion cut in the district's local budget.
The 99-page GOP draft StopGap funding bill will continue to run the federal government past the Friday night closure deadline at the 2024 level. Its passing is not guaranteed, but there is great pressure on Senate Democrats holding the vote to allow it to move forward.
However, Democrats and local officials have issued warnings about language omissions that allow DC to continue local budgets at the 2025 fiscal year level, as is the long-standing practice of the suspension bill.
“This doesn't save the federal government money, right?” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a senior budgeter, told Hill. “This isn't $1 billion in federal funds. What they did was cap the DC budget.”
“So this is like telling someone's city council what their total budget cap is. This is a council that is trying to use the Columbia area as a playground and playground.”
Van Hollen said he is “looking for a variety of options now to try to address that issue,” but he added that his “understanding” of House Republican motivations is to rule out language.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Susan Collins (R Maine) told Hill that he supports DC's plans to allow it to continue operating under its own budget plan and speak to DC Muriel Bowser (D).
“I support that language. I don't know why the house left it,” she said.
The suspension funds bill under consideration by the Senate will be the third continuing resolution (CR) for fiscal year 2025, which began in October. Invoices will include increased and reduced funding, but are primarily funded at the 2024 level.
The key difference between this CR and the previous CR is that at the already approved 2025 level, there is a lack of language that allows DCs to use their local budgets (consisting primarily of local taxes). DC was recognized in the 1970s for what is known as the “home rules,” but Congress still approves the budget during the expenditure process.
As a result, DC officials say districts will be forced to spend at the 2024 level, like federal agencies, despite running at the updated budget level for about six months.
In a statement obtained by Hill this week, the mayor's office described the “meaningless and reckless” movement as “has devastating consequences for our country's capital and impacts public safety, education and essential services.”
Up until the House vote on the law earlier this week, D.C. officials took them to the Capitol with concerns about the suspension, and Bowser called on members a few metres away in the building to address the “$1.1 billion issue” mid-year.
“We're not a federal agency,” she said. “We are cities, counties, counties at once, providing direct services to people in the District of Columbia, visitors to the District of Columbia, businesses in the District of Columbia, diplomats, heads of state, and anyone who works in Congress.”
The mayor's office said in a recent request to lawmakers that such cuts would be a major blow to the general funds budget.
“So far, DC has spent, mandated, or got in the way of $6.3 billion, which is 48% of the total local budget,” the memo said. “If we now have to cut our local spending by $1.1 billion, all remaining funds that are not consumed will need a 16% cut.”
The office also warned that such reductions would “induce immediate and unexpected layoffs of direct service workers, resulting in reductions or elimination that direct service residents and visitors rely on.”
Bowser's Office is seeking the Senate. [fiscal 2025] budget. “
The office also asks Congress to “add a language that provided the district with the ability to use local resources in the event of federal government shutdown.”
Additionally, Van Hollen and Sen. Angela of Brooks (D-MD.) are seeking amendments to prevent DC reductions.
However, it would require amendments to bring the language back to the bill, which would send the CR back to the House of Representatives for a vote. The House was postponed after passing the spending bill on Tuesday, and it was unable to return to DC to pass an updated version before the government shut down.
If it fails, Van Hollen said there are plans to try to pass the resolution before the Senate leaves town “to achieve the same goals in DC.”
The House GOP budgeter said in a statement Wednesday that “additional resources remain to support the District of Columbia to ensure the safety of public events, as well as additional resources to respond to terrorist threats and attacks,” but that “confirmed that the bill holds DC for the remainder of the fiscal year. [fiscal 2024] Level as in other parts of the federal government. ”
“The House Budget Committee is guaranteed that DC continues to have a balanced budget,” they added. “Guardian closures have an impact on the DC and the country, House Republicans have taken steps to avoid that.”
Asked by a DC official about his recent opposition to the current suspension plan, House Budget Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) first told Hill the Hill that some of the funds were “the first one like the extra police,” but he added, “we need to look at it in more detail than I do.”
“I'm sorry if everything wasn't perfect. I'm sorry Democrats weren't at the table to talk to us, but that's exactly what it is.”
In a memo to the council, the district said almost three-quarters of its budget “consisting of locally generated revenue.”
Previous suspension laws also included funding for Trump's inauguration in D.C. earlier this year, but Bowser's office said federal payments are less than 1% of the total budget, separate from federal grants.
“Even so, it supports important features, including In. [fiscal 2025’s] Approved budget of $47 million for the costs incurred to support the district's Emergency Security and Planning Fund (EPSF) that supports the costs incurred to support President Donald Trump's inauguration and the costs incurred by the district to support federal government activities.
“in [fiscal 2024]DC has the funds to support President Trump's inauguration and there is little funding for the EPSF,” the mayor's office added.
