With one recess behind them and another on the horizon, House leadership has yet to bring the District of Columbia Local Funds Act to the floor for a vote — a situation that’s further incensed a group of local organizers fighting to save D.C.’s budget.
The District of Columbia Local Funds Act, if passed, protects the District’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget from a $1.1 billion budget cut mandated in a continuing resolution that Congress approved earlier this year. The Senate sent the District of Columbia Local Funds Act to the House to fix what, by that time, had been characterized as an error more so than an infringement on local budget autonomy.
Though Sen. Susan Collins (D-Maine) assured her colleagues that the bill would make it through the House, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has made little, if any, movement on the legislation, even with President Donald J. Trump’s support for it.
“They plan to go on vacation and not fix this situation and that is not going to work for us,” said Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, a movement centered on bolstering the fight for D.C. statehood and self-determination.
On Monday morning, Chatterjee counted among several dozen parents, youth, teachers, elected officials, and organizers who gathered at Spirit of Justice Park — located just feet from Longworth House Office Building — in preparation for another installment of “Recess at the Capitol.”
In March, when the continuing resolution first made it to the Senate, District public and public charter school students and their families occupied a portion of the Hart Senate Office Building, during the inaugural “Recess at the Capitol.”
They did so in demand of the Senate protecting District budget autonomy. Since the Senate’s approval of the District of Columbia Local Funds Act, Free DC members have made the rounds in Longworth and other House office buildings, engaging congressional representatives and staffers in conversation about what residents stand to lose.
This grassroots organizing took place as the Bowser administration, unsure about how Fiscal Year 2025 would end, postponed its submission of its Fiscal Year 2026 budget. Last week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) told reporters that she plans to submit a budget proposal this week, near when the House is scheduled to break for a recess that lasts until the end of April.
As of last month, the District government has spent below the expenditures earmarked for this part of the fiscal year. However, Bowser administration officials warned of an impending fiscal cliff that, if not addressed, would result in immediate layoffs and reduction in District government-operated services and programs.
With several children, parents and organizers behind her, Chatterjee, mother of a 14-year-old student, gave a warning of her own to a Congress that she said exploits its proximity of D.C. residents, who are at-risk of losing academic instruction, extracurricular activities, transportation options, and other programs already included in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget.
“What’s going to happen if we face this $1 billion-plus shortfall and our kids can’t go to school five days a week. Where do you think we’re going to send them? They’re going to go right into these people’s offices,” Chatterjee said. “If we have to furlough transit workers, how’s their [congressional] staff going to get to work? If our sanitation workers get furloughed, I know where I want to take the trash and it’s these trash folks behind us who are stealing our own money.”
Elizabeth Kalmbach, Speaker Johnson’s press secretary, didn’t immediately respond to The Informer’s request for comment.
Other bills to be considered on the House floor this week include the Veterans Support Act; Fairness for Servicemembers and their Families Act of 2025; and Montgomery GI Bill Selected Reserves Tuition Fairness Act of 2025.
Before wrapping up her remarks, Chatterjee spoke clearly about her mission.
“What we’re going to do today and what we need to do this week is make it really clear that [House members] should not be going on vacation without passing the DC Local Funds Act.”
Threats to Public and Public Charter School Budgets
As D.C.’s budget continues to hang in the balance, students and adults alike are mulling over what would become of their academic experience with a $1.1 billion shortfall. The meeting at Spirit of Justice Park on Monday allowed space to answer that question, with comments from D.C. State Board of Education Reps. Jacque Patterson (At large) and LaJoy Johnson-Law (Ward 8); Kimberly Perry of DC Action, Barry Wilson of ATU Local 689, and Washington Teachers’ Union President Jacqueline Pogue Lyons.
Malysha Cook-Terr, a sophomore at Anacostia High School, also weighed in. At a podium set up in the middle of the park, she spoke about her extracurricular activities, all of which she called a refuge and much-needed resource in the post-pandemic era.
“It goes outside the classroom. Our after-school programs keep us engaged and out of harm,” said Malysha, a member of Anacostia High Schol’s robotics club, track and field and volleyball teams, and student government association. “The possibility of losing this $1.1 billion in educational funding, [it’s] not just a number, [it’s] life-altering some, [something] that could drastically affect our schools, teachers, and most importantly, the children.”
When it comes to her peers, Malysha pondered how they would fare without what she called a much-needed safety net.
“We risk the undermining of progress that we have made in providing quality education to all students in D.C.,” Malysha said. “Teachers who are already stretching thin and going above and beyond to support us may face layoffs. STEAM programs, sports, and other extracurricular activities could be eliminated entirely.”
At a time when District public school teachers are planning whether to return next school year, Pogue Lyons said that surrounding school districts could be a more attractive option to teachers seeking stability.
“With all the complications with the budget, I can’t say that they feel encouraged to stay,” Pogue Lyons said. “Anybody that lives and works here knows that our teachers can go up and down the block, across the river, and over the bridge to get a job. Those jobs in those other places are not worried about a billion-dollar deficit right now.”
An exodus of teachers and other essential workers, Pogue Lyons said, will be detrimental to young people living in communities across the District.
“We’re going to be faced with bigger class sizes [and] the fact that children are not going to receive the services that they need,” Pogue Lyons said. “We know that it’s hard to get and keep firefighters, police officers, teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and educational aides. I can promise you we’re not going to come back as easy as we think we are. This is something that could last us for years and years and years.”
When it comes to the charter sector, Patterson, who also serves as chief community engagement and growth officer at KIPP DC, confirmed that administrators, at least at his school, are discussing contingencies.
“They’re literally sitting in meetings saying, ‘Can we have an after-school program?’ Patterson said. “Can we have high-intensity tutoring, which has been so effective in getting us out of COVID? Can we pay those teachers to do the extra work, to put in that grind every single day that they’re doing trying to get our kids to recover from COVID and all its effects?’”
On Monday, Patterson continued a crusade to hold governments accountable to students and parents when he called House Republicans’ treatment of District residents as part of a larger system that denies young people access to a quality education.
“A hundred thousand children, OK, are going to be affected when you take away $1.1 billion,” Patterson said. “What happens after they get out of school each day? What’s their safety like on the streets? How are they getting back and forth to school? Those are some of the things that will also be affected.”
Further Examining the Potential Damage to Working Families and Essential Workers
Perry, a Ward 2 mother and head of D.C. Action, a child and youth advocacy organization, noted that childcare and out-of-school time programming also hangs in the balance. The results of losing funding, she said, would be detrimental to the District, a jurisdiction that, despite the high cost of childcare, has been responsive to the needs of working parents.
Part of that, Perry noted, involved adequately paying early childcare workers and ensuring that the facilities are able to attract the best and the brightest in their field. With a $1.1 billion deficit, the early childcare educator fund that facilitates that process could be among the first programs to be eliminated.
“We need skilled educators, and that makes a huge transformation in the life of a child. It’s why we have District leaders who have invested so wisely in building one of the most equitable and innovative early childhood education systems that we have here in the country.”
She focused on other youth enrichment programs that stand to be eliminated if D.C. doesn’t maintain its current fiscal year allocation level, emphasizing the importance of these efforts.
“We also know that when students have access to great afterschool and summer enrichment, they do better academically,” Perry said. “And when young people have access to workforce development, jobs, safe housing, they’re more likely to experience a healthy and productive transition into adulthood.”
While Perry spoke about the essential workers, Wilson spoke about transit employees, or, as he called them, the essential workers for the essential workers. Wilson, speaking on behalf of 15,000 transit workers, lamented what would happen to his comrades just months after the D.C. Council and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) helped WMATA avert massive layoffs and service reduction.
“Because of the situation we’re facing, that funding is facing to be taken back,” Wilson said. “That would bring less reliable service. They will have to take tens of millions of dollars from preventive maintenance to carry over to the transit operation budget.”
The outcome, Barry said, would affect much more than the people who call D.C. home 365 days out of the year.
“Transit doesn’t just get the residents around, it also gets the millions of visitors that come through, as well as the congressional leaders that go back and forth every day,” Barry added.
For at least two years, congressional leaders have infringed on District Home Rule, notably by rejecting the District’s revised criminal code. The continuing resolution that damages D.C.’s current fiscal year budget comes in the midst of the BOWSER Act, legislation intended to revoke District home rule, as well as a Trump executive order that further imposes control over local affairs.
“Congresspeople come from outside of the city and they meet here in these buildings behind us, but they forget the faces that live here every single day,” Patterson said on Monday. “We are 700,000+ people that live in this city.”
SBOE Rep. Johnson-Law Demands Empathy and Respect
As the facilitator of the press conference that took place at Spirit of Justice Park on Monday, Johnson-Law set out to affirm her humanity, and that of the children, parents and community members.
She said that “Recess at the Capitol” came out of frustration with Congress’ actions toward District families. For her, showing up at the Capitol further solidifies her demand that members of Congress, particularly those with D.C.’s future in their hands, have empathy and, more importantly, respect for District families.
“You don’t sit up here and make unilateral decisions like that and affect an entire neighborhood and affect an entire city,” Johnson-Law said. “You don’t have the audacity to look somebody in their face. We’re going to come to your office because that’s not OK.”
As more than 700,000 Washingtonians await the final say about the District’s budget and sovereignty, Johnson-Law acknowledged all those who stood ready to defend D.C.
“What you all see here are real people in real time that have real lives and real children and real families,” she declared. “And you don’t get to sit up here and make those types of decisions for people and think that’s OK.”