WASHINGTON — A government funding bill that passed the Senate on Friday could force the city government here to slash its budget by about $1 billion, a cut city leaders say could force them to fire workers — including police officers.
The Senate quickly passed a follow-up bill to fix the cut, which turned out to be a mistake, but it’s unclear how soon the House will consider it or if it would pass the lower chamber.
Speaking outside the Capitol earlier this week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) implored Republicans to reconsider the cut, which she described as a mistake.
“There’s no way to cut that kind of money in the time that we would have in this fiscal year not to affect police and not to affect teachers and not to affect some of the basic government services that allow us to keep our city clean, safe and beautiful,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said Monday outside the Capitol.
The citizens of Washington, D.C. get to elect their own leaders, but ultimately Congress has authority over the city, and the government funding bill, which passed the House this week and has to clear the Senate by midnight Friday order to prevent a government shutdown, represents one of Republicans’ most dramatic incursions on home rule in years.
The mayor’s office said in a fact sheet the funding bill will require a 16% reduction to the city’s budget, and that the police department is one of 10 agencies making up 70% of the city’s spending, with personnel accounting for 90% of the Metropolitan Police Department budget.
Bowser wouldn’t outright say that police officers would definitely be laid off, however.
“It would never be my first choice to lay off anybody,” Bowser said in response to a reporter’s question.
In the past, Republicans have been far less circumspect in describing the impact of potential funding cuts on city police. When Bowser proposed a budget for fiscal year 2022 trimming police funding by nearly 6%, House Republicans repeatedly accused the city’s Democrats of scheming to “defund the police,” summoning city officials for briefings and hearings.
Republicans used progressive calls to “defund the police” as a rallying cry that year on their way to winning control of the House of Representatives after a surge of violent crime in cities across the country. Democrats have highlighted their apparent change of heart in the nation’s capital.
“If you fire cops, the region’s gonna be less safe,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told HuffPost.
President Donald Trump has mused about taking over the city, and Republicans have introduced legislation that would revoke home rule, but it’s not clear if Republicans actually intended to cut the city’s budget in the government funding bill.
The legislation mostly holds federal spending to fiscal 2024 and does the same for the city, even though the city is on its 2025 budget, a discrepancy that House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said at a hearing would only result in “minor reductions.” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she was surprised by the provision and opposed it, though not enough to let the federal government shut down. Later on Friday, she said the House included the provision by “mistake” shortly before the Senate unanimously approved a fix.
In general, however, most Republicans are happy to give the finger to Washington, even if cutting the city’s budget merely disallows the city from spending locally-raised revenue and doesn’t save the federal government a dime.
“My Democrat colleagues keep complaining how unfair this [continuing resolution] is to the D.C. residents, but there are over 160,000 federal employees in the District of Columbia, which, quite frankly, is more than there should be,” Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) said on the House floor, adding that a government shutdown would take their paychecks away.
Republicans have also frequently criticized the city as disorderly.
“If they’re talking about law enforcement, I’d like to know what they’re doing, because you can’t drive around here without seeing these scooters going all through the red lights,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told HuffPost, referring to delivery scooters that are ubiquitous in the capital. “The homeless population is everywhere, illegal drug activity is taking place constantly, so I get it [about cutting funding]. I don’t know why I wasn’t part of that decision-making, but I would raise questions.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) pivoted from the city’s police budget to commentary on the city’s residential trash collection, which he suggested is subpar.
“No Republican wants to defund police. The Democrats are the ones who want to defund police,” Scott said. “When we’re talking about D.C., maybe they could start picking up my trash.”
