Facing a gaping $1.1 billion shortfall after Congress excluded language allowing D.C. to access its approved fiscal year 2025 budget, Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday formally notified Capitol Hill leaders that the city will invoke a 2009 federal provision to add approximately $679 million to this year’s budget — an emergency stopgap designed to stave off deeper cuts to essential services.
“We need the Congress to act,” Bowser told reporters during an unrelated press conference. “What we’re doing is a stopgap. It doesn’t address the issue.”
The move, authorized under Section 817 of the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, enables D.C. to increase its local fund appropriations by up to 6% of the previous year’s budget — without requiring congressional approval — so long as the Chief Financial Officer certifies the city’s financial health will not be jeopardized.
In a letter sent Monday to the House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders, Bowser outlined the District’s plan to use the provision to mitigate the severe budget restrictions imposed by the GOP-controlled House. The current federal spending bill treats D.C. like a federal agency, effectively blocking access to over $1 billion in locally approved revenue.
The $679 million increase would still result in about $410 million in local spending cuts, but it would significantly reduce the pain compared to the deeper cuts previously outlined under the federal spending plan.
“Without the ability to fully execute the Fiscal Year 2025 budget as adopted and approved by the District, this gap will force reductions in critical services provided by our largest agencies, including public safety agencies such as the Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department,” Bowser wrote in her letter.
District officials said they expect spending freezes to begin in the next two weeks, though details on how those freezes would be implemented remain undecided. Payroll and debt service obligations will continue uninterrupted. While Bowser can order freezes unilaterally, permanent changes would require inclusion in the yet-to-be-finalized supplemental budget.
The mayor confirmed she has completed the budget for the next fiscal year, but the supplemental budget for the current year — where the $410 million in cuts would be realized — is still in progress. She declined to give a timeline for its completion or to preview specific areas targeted for cuts.
Asked why she waited until now to invoke the 2009 law, Bowser pointed to her earlier confidence in a legislative fix.
“I thought that because we had a bipartisan bill that came out of the Senate, we had the full-throated support of the president of the United States… it was perfectly teed up for a vote,” she said.
The D.C. Council must still approve the supplemental budget. Officials stressed that any spending cuts could include furloughs but likely not layoffs, which they said are more costly to implement.
“We have to have an approved appropriation from the Congress to spend our own money,” Bowser said. “And given the amount of time we have left in our fiscal year—six months there—I can’t say I can take off the table job impacts.”
Many social media users expressed their concern about what’s next for the District.
“Sad,” one social media user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The city will suffer and it’s not our fault.”
