The Senate just passed a stopgap funding bill that averted a federal government shutdown but also created a $1.1 billion hole in D.C.'s local budget. Thankfully, immediately after, senators voted to plug that hole. The bill, endorsed by Maine, Maryland, and Virginia senators, will go to the House next for approval.
All week long, D.C. residents, students, teachers, and politicians have been knocking on Congresspeople's doors and protesting outside their offices, pleading with them to leave D.C.'s budget alone.
The approved stopgap budget bill includes language that specifically cuts services funded by local taxpayer dollars; it wouldn't save any money for the federal government, and the impact would be immediate. D.C. schools, police, and services for unhoused people would see huge cuts over the next six months.
If the House passes the stand-alone bill that Senate just approved, then that immediate budget crisis will be avoided.
But D.C. has other significant budget concerns to contend with. The city’s CFO Glen Lee forecasts that D.C. will lose $1 billion in revenue over the next three years, due to rising unemployment and falling tax revenue caused by the federal government’s widespread layoffs and threats to cut D.C.’s Medicaid match.
