Senators voted Friday to pass legislation to prevent cuts to the District of Columbia’s local budget after city officials warned the District faced a $1 billion hit under a stopgap government funding bill approved by the Senate moments earlier.
The bill, which allows D.C. to continue operating at its adopted fiscal 2025 budget, passed by voice vote.
“This legislation will make sure that we take care of the residents of the District. It will support law enforcement and firefighters and teachers and basic city services,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said ahead of the vote.
“This legislation is very good news for the residents of the District of Columbia. I am happy we are passing this bill today.”
Schumer’s office said the vote will correct legislation that funded the government into September largely under fiscal 2024 levels, but left out language allowing the District to operate at 2025 spending levels the city adopted last year.
Amending the larger government funding bill would have required the House — which left town after passing the measure earlier this week — to vote on it again and almost certainly caused a government shutdown.
The stand-alone D.C. bill still needs to be approved by the House and signed by President Trump, and it’s unclear how soon the lower chamber will act on it. Neither the House nor Senate are in session next week.
While D.C. was granted what’s known as “home rule” in the 1970s, Congress still approves its budget during the appropriations process. Stopgap spending bills, like the one passed Friday, typically include language allowing D.C. to continue operating under whatever budget the city has approved, despite the federal government being held to levels from prior years. But that language was seemingly omitted from the latest stopgap.
As a result, D.C. officials have said the District would be forced to spend at its fiscal 2024 levels like federal agencies would under the stopgap — after running at its updated budget levels for roughly half a year.
Updated at 6:55 p.m. EST
