GOP spending bill seeking immediate $1 billion in cuts to DC budget

[Anonymous]

Incluing $358 million for schools (combined for DCPS and charter) in the middle of the school year. This is devastating and enraging. What chances does this have of actually going through?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/09/dc-budget-congress-house-republicans-continuing-resolution/

[Anonymous]

Hopefully, unless the CR is written to include clarifying language that this does NOT effect DC's budget it won't get the 60+ votes that it needs in the Senate. (ie. it needs 7 Democrats in the Senate to vote yes assuming all Republicans do.)

[Anonymous]

I hope the people on DCUM who wanted the GOP to "fix" DC, or thought the GOP would, are paying attention. The GOP doesn't care about DC unless they can use it to score cheap political points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully, unless the CR is written to include clarifying language that this does NOT effect DC's budget it won't get the 60+ votes that it needs in the Senate. (ie. it needs 7 Democrats in the Senate to vote yes assuming all Republicans do.)

The Democrats don't care either. We are on our own as always.

Wish Bowser had made the hard budget decision of cutting from the billions in new spending that have been added over the last few years before it came to this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully, unless the CR is written to include clarifying language that this does NOT effect DC's budget it won't get the 60+ votes that it needs in the Senate. (ie. it needs 7 Democrats in the Senate to vote yes assuming all Republicans do.)

The Democrats don't care either. We are on our own as always.

Wish Bowser had made the hard budget decision of cutting from the billions in new spending that have been added over the last few years before it came to this.

What does this mean??

[Anonymous]

It makes little sense, and it’s still unclear why it is in there. These are not federal funds. DC balances its budget.

It seems only in there to punish DC. Or it’s a bizarre mistake.

[Anonymous]

People need to understand, this is not federal money. This is DC money. It would be like a governor approving a budget for a city where all of the dollars in the budget are generated in the city.

This is part of the problem with the current structure. the GOP has zero stake in this and can completely degrade the quality of life of DC residents without a care or repercussion.

This impacts DC Fire, Metropolitan Police, the money that goes to providing a rich transit system for tourists, clean streets, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People need to understand, this is not federal money. This is DC money. It would be like a governor approving a budget for a city where all of the dollars in the budget are generated in the city.

This is part of the problem with the current structure. the GOP has zero stake in this and can completely degrade the quality of life of DC residents without a care or repercussion.

This impacts DC Fire, Metropolitan Police, the money that goes to providing a rich transit system for tourists, clean streets, etc.

^^ exactly, this is local revenue. This is NOT federal money. It’s frankly insane that this is in there. There is really no other explanation except to seriously harm the city almost immediately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully, unless the CR is written to include clarifying language that this does NOT effect DC's budget it won't get the 60+ votes that it needs in the Senate. (ie. it needs 7 Democrats in the Senate to vote yes assuming all Republicans do.)

The Democrats don't care either. We are on our own as always.

Wish Bowser had made the hard budget decision of cutting from the billions in new spending that have been added over the last few years before it came to this.

What does this mean??

It means that spending was greatly expanded since the pandemic. This was largely done on the back of pandemic and IRA grants that reduced the cost of some of that spending.

Yet while the costs were reduced at the time the programs implemented often created long term spending obligations. The various health care, housing, school and transportation expenditures for example.

We have known for quite some time now that that new spending was unsustainable and that the post-pandemic bill was coming due. Had we been more proactive about cutting our budget then we wouldn't be needing to scramble now. We need the rainy day fund that we drew down when things were good.

TLDR: Trump sucks but we could never afford to be as generous as the Council has been recently. Free IVF, free housing, free food, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It makes little sense, and it’s still unclear why it is in there. These are not federal funds. DC balances its budget.

It seems only in there to punish DC. Or it’s a bizarre mistake.

It's in there to punish DC. They have stated that they are giving DC the same treatment that the independent agencies are getting. It is only going to get worse and we need to be preparing for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully, unless the CR is written to include clarifying language that this does NOT effect DC's budget it won't get the 60+ votes that it needs in the Senate. (ie. it needs 7 Democrats in the Senate to vote yes assuming all Republicans do.)

The Democrats don't care either. We are on our own as always.

Wish Bowser had made the hard budget decision of cutting from the billions in new spending that have been added over the last few years before it came to this.

What does this mean??

It means that spending was greatly expanded since the pandemic. This was largely done on the back of pandemic and IRA grants that reduced the cost of some of that spending.

Yet while the costs were reduced at the time the programs implemented often created long term spending obligations. The various health care, housing, school and transportation expenditures for example.

We have known for quite some time now that that new spending was unsustainable and that the post-pandemic bill was coming due. Had we been more proactive about cutting our budget then we wouldn't be needing to scramble now. We need the rainy day fund that we drew down when things were good.

TLDR: Trump sucks but we could never afford to be as generous as the Council has been recently. Free IVF, free housing, free food, etc

+1 I was really pleased to see some of the ways that DC used pandemic emergency funds - one time bonuses to ECE teachers, housing assistance, etc. But then the pandemic ended, and the funds went away, and . . . they just kept spending money that we did not have anymore to meet emergency needs that no longer existed. We had the lowest unemployment in a generation and they were giving people to pay their rent for years on end. It didn't make any sense from any angle, except that they refuse to believe that there is any need to prioritize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Incluing $358 million for schools (combined for DCPS and charter) in the middle of the school year. This is devastating and enraging. What chances does this have of actually going through?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/09/dc-budget-congress-house-republicans-continuing-resolution/

Same thing will happen to every city and state. Look at Texas 33% of the budget comes from the Feds. That will be cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incluing $358 million for schools (combined for DCPS and charter) in the middle of the school year. This is devastating and enraging. What chances does this have of actually going through?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/09/dc-budget-congress-house-republicans-continuing-resolution/

Same thing will happen to every city and state. Look at Texas 33% of the budget comes from the Feds. That will be cut.

These are DC funds raised from DC taxpayers.

[Anonymous]

The city has had a balanced budget for 20+ years. The feds can’t say the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incluing $358 million for schools (combined for DCPS and charter) in the middle of the school year. This is devastating and enraging. What chances does this have of actually going through?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/03/09/dc-budget-congress-house-republicans-continuing-resolution/

Same thing will happen to every city and state. Look at Texas 33% of the budget comes from the Feds. That will be cut.

Not exactly the same. They will not cut the local Texas residents' taxpayer money. They might cut the federal payment which is a small part of the DC budget. The problem is that Congress approves DC's budget. Congress does not approve the Texas or Houston or Dallas budget.