House Speaker Mike Johnson says his chamber will hold a vote “as quickly as possible” to reverse the $1 billion budget cut being federally enforced against the District.
Mr. Johnson said this week that efforts to fix the District’s budget are not being pushed off for political reasons but because the GOP-controlled House is consumed by work on President Trump’s budget reconciliation bill.
“It’s just a matter of schedule, even at this point,” Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told reporters about turning his attention toward the District’s finances.
The speaker said he aims to have the budget reconciliation package done by Memorial Day, though he acknowledged it could come after the holiday.
That timeline puts the District in a tight spot. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, is already weeks behind in delivering to the D.C. Council her proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The council set a May 15 deadline for the mayor to share her full proposal. Ms. Bowser has said she’s waiting to give Congress time to correct its “snafu” that could see drastic cuts to the Metropolitan Police Department, Fire and EMS and public schools.
The District is required to shave $1 billion from its current budget after a federal stopgap law mandated that the city revert its spending to fiscal 2024 levels.
A Senate resolution to address the shortfall was passed in March and supported by Mr. Trump, but it has sat idle in the House ever since.
Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and chair of the House Oversight Committee, said he has lobbied colleagues to act on the matter.
“I’ve done everything I can to advocate for fixing it,” Mr. Comer told Politico. “I’m willing to do everything in my committee, for the most part.”
Other House Republicans, such as Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, said they want to use this second look at the District’s finances to limit how the city spends its tax dollars. He noted public funds for abortion, reparations and helping relocate the Washington Commanders to the RFK Stadium site.
The Home Rule Act of 1973 allows D.C. residents to elect a mayor and city council to handle local matters, but Congress retains oversight authority over the District under the U.S. Constitution.
Capitol Hill exercised that power in March, when House lawmakers removed a decades-old provision from the temporary spending bill, called a continuing resolution, that lets the District fund city operations even when Democrats and Republicans are at odds over federal spending.
Without the provision, the stopgap law holds the city to the same standards as federal agencies, which must revert their budgets to 2024 levels.
Ms. Bowser and nearly every other lawmaker in the District argued that the enforced budget cut affects only local tax dollars raised by the city and won’t help lower the federal deficit.
Last month, Ms. Bowser ordered a hiring freeze and facility closures to accommodate the federally mandated budget cuts. She also ordered a stop to pay raises, promotions, bonuses and overtime pay.
City Administrator Kevin Donahue was supposed to produce a plan for furloughs and facility closures in April, according to the mayor’s order. Ms. Bowser said last week her team “will be finalizing plans in the coming days.”
She also said she believes Metropolitan Police is exempt from the freeze on overtime pay, a key incentive for officers to take on extra shifts in the short-staffed department.
Ms. Bowser was supposed to introduce her full budget proposal April 2, but the current year’s budget saga has dominated her administration’s focus.
Beyond fiscal 2025, D.C. officials have said the city faces a roughly $1 billion drop in revenue over the next three years due to the Trump administration’s downsizing of the federal government.
