DC Officials Push for Budget Fix in CR or Out of It
Despite their reluctance to repair a $ 1.1 billion hole they exploded in the Washington DC budget last March, the Républicains de la Chambre now proposes to fill the gap in their new continuous resolution.
“I was very vocal while trying to get this inclusive,” said representative James Comer (R-KY), president of the Chamber’s supervisory committee, about the financing of a hearing on Thursday with the District Management.
Representative Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) asked to comer how money had been excluded from republican spending in the first place.
“No one has ever explained this to me,” replied, laughing.
Democrats would also repair the hole in their own CR version, unveiled on Wednesday evening. This bill, which would restore funding, the Medicaid Cup and stop the Capture of Power of the Trump Administration of the legislative management capacity to appropriate the funds, among others, will not go in a republican-majority congress.
The district has been in limbo since last spring, forced to hire gels and program delays, without the assurance that Congress no longer breaks the DC budget in the future. Money is characteristic of the city, raised by the taxes of its inhabitants, and did not go to the federal government. The budgetary hole, in addition to the Doge cuts, revised DC income projections down $ 1 billion over the next four years, drawn by 40,000 expected job losses, according to the DC Murial Bowser mayor’s office (D).
The “complete lack of autonomy of DC also prevents us from using the money we have collected in taxes as this year,” said Bowser at Thursday’s surveillance audience. “The taxes that we have raised in the district have been reduced to our approved budget, which forced us to reduce services, including the increases in remuneration, that our police should be due in October.”
Bowser added that she “hopes” that the fix has passed through the CR, pointing to an autonomous bill, the congress could go outside the financing process-“it is not too late,” she said.
His apprehension stems from the uncertain future of the republican CR. The adoption will require the cooperation of seven democrats in the Senate to overcome the filibusier. So far, only Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) has said that he would vote for the resolution (Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said that he would vote against the CR, but that he was known to get back online on republican spending legislation that he does not like).
When Bowser was questioned after the hearing if she would pressure for the passage of the GOP CR, given her DC budgetary solution, she declared that she would not restore the necessary funding during the previous financial year.
The president of the DC council, Phil Mendelson, however told TPM that his objective was the prospective language that CR do Include, let DC use your own money in 2026.
“We found a way to get around this harmful, but we found a way to get around this,” he said about the 2025 budget hole.
“This language must be adopted by Congress,” he said about the prospective guarantee, “but CR is not life or death for us.” He underlined the inclusion by the CR of this language as proof that “republican management recognizes that it must be in everything that goes by”.
On Thursday, Democratic leadership argues that the Caucus will not vote for the Republican CR because of its inability to extend subsidies to the Act respecting affordable care and to restore the coupé funds of Medicaid.
“When Donald Trump says that I don’t even bother to deal with the Democrats, he says he wants a closure, clear and simple,” said the Chief of the Senate Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday morning.
If the government stops this month, the district will have to wait even longer for a budgetary solution – and, with the end of the profile exercise, the warranty even more important than the district money will not be suddenly taken up.
