DC leaders in budget panic, saying Congress bill would financially devastate the city – WTOP News

D.C. leaders were in a panic on Monday afternoon, sounding the alarm and saying the federal spending bill under consideration in Congress would be financially devastating to the city.

“It’s like taking a catastrophe and doubling it,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said.

Over the weekend, House Republicans unveiled a bill that would keep federal agencies funded through Sept. 30, pushing ahead with a go-it-alone strategy that seems certain to spark a major confrontation with Democrats.

Congress must act by midnight Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Under the bill, D.C. would be treated like a federal agency, and agencies would be required to return to their 2024 spending levels. That means if the bill were to pass as it’s written, the city would need to return to last year’s levels — effectively undergoing about $1 billion in cuts over the next six months.

“I can’t emphasize how serious this would be,” Mendelson said. “We are not a federal agency, we operate like a state. … It’s our money and it’s our revenue. This would not be savings to the federal government.”

Mendelson warned of severe impacts to services, including public safety, policing, fire response, public education and city cleanliness.

According to City Administrator Kevin Donahue, the cuts would likely trigger an immediate hiring freeze and layoffs affecting core services.

“To make the math work on that kind of cut with almost no warning, you have to immediately go to where your spending is, which is on people that deliver service,” Donahue said.

D.C. Shadow Rep. Oye Owolewa said in a statement Monday that residents in the District are at risk of losing crucial public services and “will continue to live under the thumb of the federal government,” until D.C. becomes a state.

City leaders stood outside the Capitol Building and urged Congress to amend the bill.

“Congress can fix this,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “They can fix this $1.1 billion problem that we have brought to their attention.”

The bill would provide a slight boost to defense programs while trimming nondefense programs below 2024 budget year levels. That approach is likely to be a nonstarter for most Democrats, who have long insisted that defense and nondefense spending move in the same direction.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., is teeing up the bill for a Tuesday vote, despite the lack of buy-in from Democrats, essentially daring them to vote against it and risk a shutdown.

It was not immediately clear whether Johnson and other Republican leaders were considering any changes in response to concerns raised by the District.

“If Congress goes through with this action, it will work against a priority that President Trump and I share, and that is to make Washington, D.C., the best, most beautiful city in the world,” Bowser said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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