There’s no shortage of House Republicans who want Congress to have complete authority over the District of Columbia. It’s just hard to find one who is eager to fix the city’s budget issue that Congress created.
As the city drafts plans for furloughs, building closures and cuts to public safety services to help accommodate the $1 billion hole Congress blew in its $21 billion budget in the last government funding bill, House Republicans have more or less forgotten about the issue.
“Boy, that’s gone quiet, hasn’t it? I haven’t heard anything about that in a while. I have no idea what the current status is,” Rep. Keith Self told NOTUS. He added that he thought the city was so “poorly managed” he couldn’t spare any sympathy for the district’s incoming cuts, anyway: “Congress probably is going to have to take over the management of D.C.”
The bill to reverse the funding cut remains untouched in the House after it passed unanimously in the Senate. Even President Donald Trump’s calls for the House to address the matter “immediately” have, so far, been left unheard as Republicans remain laser-focused on their reconciliation negotiations. Many Republicans told NOTUS they either hadn’t heard about it at all or that they hadn’t had time to look into the issue.
“Honestly, we’ve been pretty focused on reconciliation. I think it’s come up before, but we’ve just been so focused, especially right now, and this week and probably the next week,” Rep. Brandon Gill, an Oversight Committee member, told NOTUS.
The last government funding bill inadvertently forced the city to revert to spending levels from its previous fiscal year while it was six months into its current operating budget. The House’s top appropriator, Rep. Tom Cole, told NOTUS the matter wasn’t in his committee’s wheelhouse anymore, passing any further action off to Oversight and leadership.
“Look, we’re waiting. That goes through a different committee. At this point I certainly support it, but that’s about all I can do,” Cole said.
A GOP aide told NOTUS in late March that the House’s “appropriators are in close contact with D.C. city officials as leadership determines a path forward,” but there’s been no clear progress since.
Even the fix’s most outspoken holdouts haven’t given the matter much attention. Back in March, the House Freedom Caucus urged Speaker Mike Johnson to hold the bill so its members could work out conditions to place on how the city could spend its local revenue, but its chair said his outfit has been too preoccupied to form specific demands yet.
“We’re all focused on reconciliation. I suspect this is going to have to occur after that,” Rep. Andy Harris told NOTUS. “We believe that it’s going to have to come with some conditions, so I mean, that’s up to leadership to figure out, whether they want to take a chance with it on the floor otherwise.”
Among Republicans’ reservations is that the bill does not explicitly lay out the usual conditions attached to the city’s appropriations bills, like the Dornan Amendment, which prohibits the city from using Medicaid funds on abortions. Sen. Susan Collins, who sponsored the fix in the Senate, and city officials insist those would still apply, but those assurances haven’t helped the bill’s holdup.
“The Senate thinks they will. I’m not sure everybody over here does, and I think that’s probably one of the hang-ups,” Cole said, adding he was unaware of any other concerns about the bill from his colleagues. “We do need to make sure the traditional riders and restrictions are there, and I don’t think they have an objection to that.”
It’s likely the fix would garner enough support from Democrats and moderate Republicans to pass, even without the support of hard-liners like Harris. That call would be up to Johnson, whose office did not respond to questions about when, or if, leadership plans to take action on the bill. Johnson also hasn’t referred it to the Oversight Committee, which has jurisdiction over D.C.
The district was forced to enact a hiring freeze on April 15, and city officials have already drafted plans for potential furloughs and city facility closures. But a statute from 2009 offered Mayor Muriel Bowser at least a little relief, allowing the city to slightly increase its congressionally approved spending levels to help make the cuts less drastic in the meantime.
“The District must act to ensure the continuity of essential public services and maintain sound financial management of local operations,” Bowser wrote in a letter to Congress’ appropriators. “Without the ability to fully execute the Fiscal Year 2025 budget as adopted and approved by the District, this gap will force reductions in critical services provided by our largest agencies, including public safety agencies.”
City officials praising the district’s decreasing crime rates haven’t been successful in waving off congressional Republicans’ concerns about public safety, however, and it’s likely that many of the House’s discussions about the bill — if they ever happen — will center on that.
“D.C. is a third-world hellhole and they need to clean it up, and if they’re gonna come begging for money, then they need to do their job,” Gill said.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, another Oversight member, told NOTUS she hadn’t had the chance to look into the matter, but that she thought it should be part of “a bigger discussion on crime in D.C.,” pointing to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s stolen purse, which was reportedly nabbed from a local restaurant.
While the city has no voting congressional representation, it’s geographically ideal for advocacy; a few lawmakers told NOTUS they only heard about the issue from concerned residents traversing House office building hallways.
“I talked to a young lady from D.C. this morning and have not had a chance to look at it,” Rep. Tim Burchett, an Oversight member, told NOTUS. “She was just grabbing congressmen, so I was explaining to her that that went through appropriations, you might want to check with them first and see where it was at.”
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Emily Kennard is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.