G.O.P. Spending Bill Would Force $1 Billion Cut to D.C. Budget
Europe|G.O.P. Spending Bill Would Force $1 Billion Cut to D.C. Budget
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/world/europe/spending-bill-government-shutdown-dc-budget-cuts.html
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Republicans omitted a standard provision approving the District’s budget in a stopgap funding measure needed to avert a shutdown before the end of the week. The result would be a 16 percent cut.
The stopgap spending bill that Republicans are pushing to avert a shutdown at the end of the week would effectively slash the District of Columbia’s budget by roughly $1 billion over the next six months, a change that local leaders warn would force dramatic cuts to essential services.
The reductions are under consideration because of a series of legislative quirks that Republicans are using to force the District, a Democratically run and predominantly Black city with a significant number of federal workers, to absorb the same freeze to its local budget that they are applying across the federal government. President Trump, who has demonized government employees, has said he wants to “take over” D.C.
Under a law that established “home rule” in Washington more than 50 years ago, Congress maintains power over the city, including final approval over its laws and annual budget. Historically, Congress has included routine language in its spending bills that approves the D.C. budget, about 75 percent of which is funded through local revenues.
But Republicans omitted the standard language from the temporary spending bill that is set to come to a vote in the House as early as Tuesday. That has thrust Washington’s fate into the center of a political debate over funding the U.S. government. Democrats could seek to block the measure in the Senate, but with a Friday deadline looming to keep federal funding flowing, doing so could earn them blame for a government shutdown.
The bill would largely freeze federal spending at levels approved last year and, if passed as currently written, would also force D.C. to return to the lower spending levels in its budget approved by Congress in 2024.
That would result in a cut of $1.1 billion mandated halfway through the fiscal year. It would require the District to cut 16 percent of all remaining funds that have not already been spent, according to a memo from Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s office sent to lawmakers over the weekend.