Speaker Mike Johnson said he still intends to hold a vote House to vote to fix the District of Columbia’s $1 billion funding shortfall, after the stopgap government funding bill he spearheaded back in March inadvertently forced the city to confront sudden budget cuts.
“I talked to the mayor and told her that we would do it as quickly as possible,” Johnson told reporters Monday evening. “Reconciliation has taken all of our energy right now, but we’re not delaying this for some political purpose or any intentionality. It’s just a matter of schedule, even at this point.”
The Senate has already approved a measure to fix what many people believe to have been a drafting error in the package Congress passed to avoid a shutdown earlier this year. That package omitted key language included in previous funding bills allowing Washington to spend its own locally raised tax dollars through the end of the fiscal year.
Congress could be running out of time to act, however, to correct its error, as the city is already looking at making dramatic reductions in local services, from scaling back law enforcement capabilities to cutting resources for public education.
President Donald Trump has called on the House to take the measure up. In the meantime, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has presented herself as a partner to the White House, standing beside the president at a press conference earlier Monday to announce the NFL would host its draft on the National Mall in 2027.
House Oversight Chair James Comer, whose panel has jurisdiction over Washington affairs, said Monday he has also been personally pressing colleagues to rectify the funding issue, which could cause dramatic reductions in local services, from scaling back law enforcement capabilities to cutting resources for public education.
Comer, a Kentucky Republican, added that Bowser’s visit to the White House Monday was particularly helpful to the cause and their conversation about football gave the mayor an opportunity to advocate for the funding fix. Bowser recently announced plans to revitalize the long-vacant RFK Stadium as the new home to the Washington Commanders, who have been relegated to a stadium in Maryland for years.
“I’ve done everything I can to advocate for fixing it,” said Comer in an interview. “I’m willing to do everything in my committee, for the most part.”
Legislation to address the funding shortfall would likely have the votes to pass the House on a bipartisan basis, but the GOP’s most conservative flank could revolt and take procedural steps to block the chamber from considering the bill.
Some Republicans lawmakers have demanded Republican leaders include conditions like forcing Washington to reverse its policy allowing noncitizens to vote, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Those calls could continue.
And last week, House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland continued to defend Congress’ authority to block the capital city’s government from spending more than $1 billion of its own funding raised through local taxes.
“D.C. is complaining because they’re having their spending frozen. Come on, the average American thinks the governments are pretty wasteful, and I think they’d applaud a freezing spending,” Harris told reporters. “Read the Constitution. The federal government has the authority over the federal enclave. Period. Full stop. That’s it.”