Dc Fears Revenue Cliff As Congress Debates Its Financial Future

Washington, D.C., which has often had a tenuous peace with the federal government when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, is now facing its most urgent threat since it was given the power of Home Rule during the Nixon administration.

The funding bill passed by the House this week calls for cuts in D.C. spending of 1.1 billion, a drastic cut that city officials said would treat the city like any federal agency and would result in a calamitous reduction in services ranging from schools to public safety.

Combined with criticisms last month from President Donald Trump who said that Washington, D.C. would be better off under total federal control, and two Republicans who have offered legislation to do just that, Democrats see Republicans as trying to wrest self-governance from the capital city. District officials have now turned their efforts urgently to the Senate, where they are pushing for lawmakers to reject the House approach.

The House spending bill holds the city's budget at fiscal year 2024 numbers, even though the District's 2025 budget is based on its own revenue and had already been approved by Congress. Republicans rejected requests from Mayor Muriel Bower and the district's non-voting Delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, to simply follow past practice.

"The pace with which they are moving is different," said Christina Henderson, a member of the DC City Council. "You could call it reckless. This is very uncharted territory for us."