DC mayor says crime-fighting efforts will be affected by budget holdup on Capitol Hill
Fresh off announcing a new effort at cutting juvenile crime, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser expressed frustration Thursday over the fact that D.C. is still waiting for congressional action that would allow it to spend $1 billion in its 2025 budget.
Last month, the Senate passed a measure that would allow the District of Columbia to choose how it spends the funds in its budget, reversing a piece of the budget bill that gave the federal government control over how D.C. spends its money. D.C. officials said that restriction would limit them to their 2024 levels — effectively a $1 billion funding cut.
While the Senate’s “fix” to the original, more restrictive spending plan has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, it’s not clear when the House will get to work on the issue or whether House members will try to tack on other legislative language to the bill.
Standing at a podium at an outdoor news conference, with D.C. police officers behind her, Bowser told reporters, “If our budget doesn’t pass and we have to look more closely at overtime spending for public safety officials, that will have an impact on crime!”
“We need to have our budget issues resolved at the Congress, and we need it done as soon as possible,” she added.
Bowser also referenced the Department of Government Efficiency, a team within the Trump administration that’s tasked with slashing federal spending, and the cuts to a wide swath of federal agencies.
“We want everybody to be treated fairly, and any personnel actions to happen legally,” Bowser said. “And, quite frankly, we think that the pace of these separations has to stop. It has to slow down so that all of those things can be done properly, or rethought completely.”
Bowser said what happens when things “are not well thought through, is that some of the consequences are unintended, but they’re predictable.”
The U.S. House of Representatives is back in session on April 7.