Facing the dire effects of a resolution to continue funding of the federal government approved by the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives that would essentially snatch $1 billion from local revenues, District of Columbia elected officials and residents have placed their hopes for a financial rescue in the Senate. Key Democrats in that chamber have lambasted the Republican measure, arguing that it would hurt vulnerable Americans while decrying the unfair treatment of the District.
The continuing resolution (CR), which would require the DC government to spend at the Fiscal Year 2024 budget level, is yet another stopgap effort to prevent a shutdown of the national government. It also camouflages the repeated failure of federally elected officials to do what most state legislators, including those in DC, do every year: Develop and pass a balanced budget.
The federal government could shut down at midnight on March 14 if a CR is not approved. Senate Democrats have introduced legislation that would extend that deadline until April 11 with what they have characterized as a “clean” bipartisan resolution, although Republicans have deemed it a nonstarter.
Typically, CRs have included a provision allowing DC to operate under its existing budget, spending local revenues collected from District residents.
This time, in a Willie Sutton move, House Republicans deliberately trapped DC in their resolution, deciding to treat it as a federal agency — essentially rescinding its approved FY 2025 budget and mandating $1 billion in spending cuts.
In my view, Republicans locked in the District for the same reason Sutton spent decades robbing banks: “That’s where the money is.”
If Republicans use this as precedent to continue to treat DC as a federal agency, that could be tantamount to a de facto repeal of home rule, resulting in the city being stripped of authority and control over revenues collected from its residents for local services and programs. Might they ultimately try to gain control of the District’s reserve accounts?
Senate Democrats have promised to push for language exempting DC from the CR.
Protecting the rights of 700,000 DC residents is important. At this writing, it’s unclear whether they will be successful. And, let’s not be naïve: Democrats are in a serious battle defending Medicaid, Social Security, public education, and veterans benefits, to say nothing of the many federal jobs that are being needlessly eliminated by an unelected billionaire acting co-president.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has reversed course and says he’ll vote for the Republicans’ CR, is understandably worried about the optics and effects of enabling President Donald Trump and the GOP to dictate the terms of a government shutdown if one were to occur. But if enough Democrats vote to allow consideration of the CR, that could put the DC government on the chopping block.
It also could help consummate — notwithstanding a week of lobbying on the Hill by DC elected officials, statehood advocates and ordinary citizens concerned about the city’s future — a prediction by Terry Lynch, the head of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, a coalition of churches that provide services to many of the city’s most vulnerable residents.
“Dark days are coming to the District,” he said during an interview earlier this week about the challenges facing the city. Lynch offered that there won’t be sufficient child care because there will be too few aides. Some schools won’t have enough teachers and will be forced to close. There also won’t be enough police to keep the streets safe. And trash is not going to get picked up on time.
DC was already facing a challenging financial future, as I mentioned in my column last week, before Republicans decided to effect their snatch and run. Circumstances in the city have quickly become a crisis.
I sought to speak with DC Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee about the dire state of affairs. He said through his spokesperson that his schedule was “full” and he could not speak with me.
City Administrator Kevin Donahue did not reply to my email requesting an interview with him.
“It is a perfect storm,” said one government insider who, like others with whom I spoke, requested anonymity in order to speak freely and because they were not authorized to comment on behalf of the Bowser administration.
This insider noted that over the next three years DC could be grappling with budget cuts totaling nearly $3 billion. He characterized the Republican demand for $1 billion in spending reductions midway through the current fiscal year as just the beginning.
Already the city was facing a $22 million revenue shortfall for FY 2025; from 2026 to 2028, the cumulative number is projected to reach $1.3 billion, primarily due to the impact of cuts in the federal workforce. Additionally, DC could lose as much as $900 million in federal funds if the GOP moves forward with planned reductions in Medicaid. The District uses Medicaid to provide health care to hundreds of thousands of its neediest residents; 70% of the costs are reimbursed by the feds.
During a press conference that DC elected officials held earlier this week at the foot of the Capitol, Mayor Muriel Bowser warned that the House-approved CR would require, among other things, considerable cuts to police, public works and some human services programs.
The continuing resolution, she added, would hamper the goal that she and Trump share of making DC the most “beautiful” city in the world.
Promises. Promises.
Interestingly, another Republican, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, had set a similar goal in the 1990s of making DC the “best capital city in the world.” He and others in Congress increased investments in DC instead of stripping it of much-needed revenues. In fact, that group of Republicans approved legislation creating a financial and management control board to rescue the District, which was experiencing a fiscal crisis.
A decade or so later, DC Appleseed, then led by attorney Walter Smith, joined with a group called Our Nation’s Capital to develop a blueprint — largely unfulfilled — for realizing that same achievement. The feds have fallen short of their special responsibilities to the city.
Not unlike in his first term, Trump and other Republicans seem to have locked into a punitive relationship with the District. A few have introduced legislation to repeal outright the DC Home Rule Act of 1973. Short of that, there is an effort to modify sections of the charter, according to sources I spoke with earlier this week.
Further, some of those same sources said that before Trump was inaugurated, he summoned former Virginia Congressman Tom Davis to Mar-a-Lago ostensibly to discuss the return of a control board. Davis — one of the key architects of the five-member panel in his role as head of the House panel with oversight of DC — did not reply to my telephone message seeking details about his meeting with the president.
Bowser also made a trip to see Trump in Florida. She indicated at the time that the meeting had gone well. But even with her attempts to build a cordial and somewhat collaborative relationship with the president and his team, he continues to mention intermittently the idea of a federal takeover of the city or certain services.
None of that history mattered to House appropriators. It likely won’t matter to Senate Republicans, either.
Even before Schumer’s flip-flop, I was less than sanguine about Democrats’ ability to get a new, “clean” CR passed given Republican control of Congress and the White House. In the end, I doubt that the District will end up avoiding the $1 billion mandate for spending reductions in FY 2025.
As terrible as this moment is, it may be an opportunity for District leaders to make the tough choices they have shied away from since the end of COVID and the loss of federal relief funds. I have argued that elected officials, especially those in the far-left wing of the DC Council, should end their spendthrift ways. There is a clear need to reduce the size of the government, including the programs and workforce.
Consider that in January, DC Auditor Kathy Patterson released a data brief indicating the outsize growth of full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) in the DC government. Between 2014 and 2023, FTEs increased by 29%. The DC population grew by only 2.3% in that same time, however.
Are these all actual workers? If so, who are they serving?
A reduction also is merited because of the increasing availability of sophisticated technology for the public and private sectors.
Obviously, cuts like those required by the House through the CR must be implemented with forethought and precision — not recklessly.
If the rescue offered initially by the Senate does come to fruition, it ought to be used wisely. The mayor and council should make the spending reductions they should have made last year, and the year before that. This is an opportunity for fiscal responsibility and accountability.
There are templates, thankfully.
In a letter to the mayor and council chair dated April 27, 2020, when the city was just starting to deal with the effects of the COVID pandemic, Patterson recalled actions that she and other elected officials were forced to take in the 1990s. Back then when Marion Barry was mayor, the council approved a combination of spending and wage cuts: “A cut to base pay of 6% in FY 1995; a cut to base pay of 4% in FY 1996; six furlough days in FY 1995; and six furlough days in FY 1996.”
“It was a difficult period that no one then serving would want to repeat and yet the situation you face today may be even more dire,” Patterson wrote in her 2020 letter. She echoed that in an interview with me earlier this week — only five years later.
“There is not a lot you can do. Most of the money goes out in paychecks,” Patterson told me.
Truth be told, DC — the so-called federal agency — is receiving the same unprofessional and inhumane treatment as most federal entities under the current administration. Over the past several weeks, President Trump and his billionaire sidekick Elon Musk have rampaged the government, firing tens of thousands of workers and stripping agencies of their taxpayer-provided revenues all under the guise of ending fraud and abuse. In actuality, the dangerous duo intend to use money from those cuts to fund Trump’s priorities, most notably presenting a larger tax break to his billionaire friends including Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Miriam Adelson and Peter Thiel, among others.
Given that reality, I had hoped to read news reports revealing that DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb had filed a lawsuit to prevent Congress and the Trump administration from acting against the DC government. After all, federal judges around the country have delayed or outright halted aspects of the Trump-Musk assault on the national government and the theft of taxpayers’ money. DC could experience victory. Even a temporary one could offer the time necessary to mitigate the harmful effect of across-the-board budget cuts.
However, on Tuesday — the day of the House vote on the CR — the DC OAG touted a lawsuit against Cloakroom, an adult entertainment venue.
Help us!
Regardless of the outcome of the CR vote, District residents and their elected officials have a major decision to make. Will they acquiesce, or will they fight back?
While it may not be apparent, Bowser has garnered a few Republican friends on Capitol Hill, said one political operative. He offered that she won over select House members during the standoff involving changes to the city’s criminal code via DC Council legislation that was subsequently repealed by Congress.
“You can love the mayor or hate the mayor. She’s still the adult in the room,” said the political operative during our interview earlier this week.
Patrick Mara, chair of the DC GOP, expressed a similar sentiment in my discussion with him. “I hope the mayor’s office continues to engage officials and staff on the Hill and in the administration,” he said, declining to offer more about how he sees the relationship developing over the next several years.
It’s true that Bowser has demonstrated polished diplomacy and a degree of toughness in dealing with Trump, his allies and congressional representatives. She is walking a livewire with the president, however. He may like her one moment and throw her under a moving bus the next.
His fragile ego requires constant stroking. Who has time for that?
Ultimately, Bowser’s responsibility is to DC residents; that will put her in direct opposition to Trump and congressional Republicans at times. That’s certainly where she is now. What will she do next?
“The damage is going to be significant. I don’t think the mayor and council are just blowing smoke,” said one longtime civic leader with demonstrated legal prowess, noting that the cuts will most likely prevent the city from delivering critical services and harm residents.
If the House version of the CR ends up becoming the law with DC suddenly treated as a federal agency, the city could make the argument that Congress’ action was “arbitrary and capricious,” said the civic leader. “My own opinion is that [the mayor and council] should sue.”
Let’s all shout amen!
UPDATE: The Senate passed the CR. However, a separate bipartisan bill was also approved that would essentially remove the mandate that DC operate under its FY 2024 budget, thus alleviating the need for a $1.1 billion spending cut. That legislation must also be approved by the House; it is on recess until March 24. It's not clear when or if Speaker Mike Johnson will bring that bill to the floor for a full vote. In other words, the fight over DC's fiscal sovereignty continues. Stay tuned.
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