Another Escalation in the War on D.C.
An Ambush in the Stopgap Budget Measure & A List of Actions For You To Do
Quick Update First: Our meeting with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb is this Saturday, March 15, starting at 1:30 pm at the Southwest Library. As of 2 pm today, 58 of you have RSVPed. There’s room for more!
Second Quick Update: Our letter was sent to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. The letter is here. No word yet from Interim U.S. Attorney Edward Martin or his staff.
The War on D.C. Continues, With a Surprise Ambush in the Proposed Stopgap Budget Bill. We Need to be Unified.
Make no mistake about it: Republicans in both the Trump Administration and in Congress are at war with our nation’s capital. They have attacked our neighbors and our city, by illegally firing federal workers, by creating chaos and anxiety among residents, and by destabilizing our city’s economy. It is time for our local elected leadership to recognize that a continued appeasement strategy will still bring the harm they are trying to stop.
The latest: Preventing D.C. from spending its Fiscal Year 2025 budget, which was approved by the Mayor, the D.C. Council, AND the U.S. Congress, forcing the city to revert back to FY24 spending levels. The impact? D.C. government will have to immediately cut $1 billion nearly halfway through the fiscal year—this will make life worse for every person and business in some way through reductions of money to police, public education, housing, health, public works, etc.
Let’s be clear about a few things:
This will make the nation’s capital less safe and secure, less healthy, and yes, less beautiful. This will reduce money for police, fire & EMS, sanitation, public education, etc. It will be hard to hold any public service harmless.
This is not about federal spending. As the chart above shows, the vast majority of D.C.’s budget are local tax and special purpose dollars. There is no big federal payment for being the nation’s capital. The federal dollars are Medicaid and program matches every other state gets with a few small exceptions.
This is about control. It’s a sort of federal financial control board, imposing Congressional will on our local spending and locally raised tax dollars.
Unlike previous federal budget continuing resolutions, or CRs as they are known, the proposal that the House of Representatives approved yesterday did not include language that would allow D.C. government to operate under its separate FY25 budget—which has already been approved by Congress. In other words, it treated D.C. like any other federal agency, such as the Agricultural Research Service, instructing the District to only spend at FY24 appropriations.
This is an ambush on D.C. Home Rule, a paternalistic measure to limit our local autonomy. It takes a chainsaw to our budget, and curtails our city’s ability to meet the needs of businesses, visitors, and residents, including the semi-permanent ones, like members of Congress and of the Trump administration.
We need to be united, as a city, in our objection to this. The House CR now moves to the U.S. Senate, where the Democrats strategy is unclear.
We need to be nimble and strategic, working with our allies in the Senate. And we need to work with unusual suspects, if possible, like local D.C. Republicans, who rhetorically claim to have the city’s best interests at heart. We need to be united in our message, that D.C. raises its own tax dollars and should direct our own spending. (Now, do I think we could spend them better? Yes. I think we spent too much in FY25 and get too little for it. I disagreed with the increase in the paid family leave tax that funded about a third of that $1 billion increase. You can read my objection in a letter to the editor here. But now is not the time to dwell on this.)
We need to call and visit Congress. We need to make our voices heard. Unlike other Americans, we don’t have a full vote in our federal legislature but we do have the ability to walk, Metro, drive and bike to visit these decision makers. There are groups that are organizing in person visits of various political stripes and tactics, more below. We can also enroll our friends and family who do have voting members.
On to the Action Part….
Actions for You to Help Our Country
Call Congress
Phone calling is effective, because it is hard to ignore. If you want more explanation, 5 calls spells it out and provides phone numbers for you. The focus right now is on the Senate and making the case that they should vote NO on the House-passed continuing resolution because it is irresponsible. It cuts money for important programs Americans rely on and emboldens the Trump administration and Elon Musk.
Attend an Event
Wednesday, March 12
Call Senators and visit their D.C. offices! Several local organizations have sent out action alerts including D.C. council members and a group called Free DC.
Thursday, March 14:
Call Senators and visit their D.C. offices! Several local organizations have sent out action alerts including D.C. council members and a group called Free DC.
Actions for You to Help D.C.
Sign On to Our Statement of D.C. Values
Join Our Meeting with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Saturday, March 15, at 1:30 p.m. at the Southwest Library. RSVP here.
Phone call and join groups that are visiting Senators at their D.C. offices. A list of Senators and their phone numbers: here.
Senate Republican Leadership
Sen. John Thune, Majority Leader
Sen. John Barrasso, Majority Whip
Senate Democratic Leadership
Sen. Chuck Schumer, Minority Leader
Sen. Dick Durbin, Minority Whip
Senators who represent areas DC residents frequently spend money and visit
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (MD)
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (MD)
Sen. Mark Warner (VA)
Sen. Tim Kaine (VA)
Sen. Chris Coons (DE)
Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE)
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (WV)
Sen. Jim Justice (WV)
This Thursday event is sponsored by local public education groups.
Actions to Help Your Neighbors, Friends, Family, and You
Call/Text/Email Your Friends Who Are Federal Workers and Contractors
This is a frightening time for all of us, and especially for federal government workers and contractors who have lost their jobs. As well, many feds who are still employed fear for the future. Now is a good time to call or text that family member or friend to check in on them. Just showing you are there for them is enough.DC, as well as Maryland and Virginia, have resource websites for fired federal workers
Update: DC has enhanced its page for federal workers! It is here.