Congress
DC officials protest House stopgap, claiming billion-dollar impact on city
Top D.C. officials protested a House Republican-written funding patch outside the Capitol on Monday, saying the omission of routine language included in prior continuing resolutions could mean a de facto $1 billion budget cut for the city government.
Mayor Muriel Bowser — flanked by Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, members of the D.C. Council and other local officials — said the measure would force cuts to police, public schools, sanitation and other key city services if passed later this week.
Prior congressional stopgaps have included language allowing the city to continue raising and spending local funds under its most recent budget — in this case, for fiscal 2025 — while the federal government operates under the prior year’s levels. With the provision omitted this time, the city would be forced to revert to fiscal 2024 spending levels, requiring drastic cutbacks given the year-to-year rise in labor and other expenses. The city raises the majority of its revenue from local taxes and fees, not federal government subsidies.
“These are not savings for the federal government,” Bowser said. “This is simply damage to the District.” She added that it was a “$1.1 billion mistake.”
Bowser said she has been in touch with the White House staff, as well as Speaker Mike Johnson’s office about the omission of the language. D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson, a Democrat like Bowser, said he had spoken separately to senior Republican staff at the House Appropriations Committee, which drafted the bill.
Johnson plans to bring the measure to the floor Tuesday once it clears the House Rules Committee Monday night, where a fix could potentially be applied.
“What we think is, this was a mistake they don’t want to admit to,” Mendelson said. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the panel’s chair, did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The House will begin consideration of a bipartisan housing bill Tuesday, with a final vote potentially taking place the same day, accelerating a previous plan to secure congressional passage of the legislation, according to four people familiar with the planning granted anonymity to discuss planning not yet public.
The Senate will hold a final vote on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Monday.
House leadership had planned to fast-track approval of the housing affordability bill by suspending the rules, a maneuver that limits debate but requires a two-thirds majority vote, as soon as Wednesday, but are looking to move that process a day earlier, the people said.
President Donald Trump is expected to hold a signing ceremony for the bill as soon as Wednesday, said two people familiar, involved with the planning conversations.
The housing bill aims to tackle housing affordability and boost homeownership and supply as the looming midterm election is dominated by cost-of-living concerns and Congress has a narrowing window to get legislation through before the August recess.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Alan Dershowitz is scheduled to speak with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on July 20 as part of its ongoing Jeffery Epstein investigation.
“I asked to be allowed to set the record straight and correct various misconceptions,” Dershowitz said in a text message. “I look forward to doing so.”
The prominent criminal defense attorney who once represented O.J. Simpson and President Donald Trump also worked on Epstein’s 2008 plea deal, which many have argued allowed Epstein — who died by suicide behind bars in 2019 — to continue to prey on young women and girls for another several years before his later incarceration.
The Oversight Committee is separately set Friday to interview investor Leon Black, whose business dealings with Epstein have been under congressional scrutiny for years.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to give a classified briefing Wednesday to a group of House Republicans about the administration’s goals for military funding and another party-line reconciliation bill, according to three people granted anonymity to describe a private meeting.
The gathering will take place during the Republican Study Committee’s weekly lunch and be held in the House SCIF, underscoring the potentially sensitive nature of Hegseth’s planned presentation.
Lawmakers are expected to also press Hegseth on the agreement the Trump administration has reached with Iran to end the war.
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- Dershowitz to testify on Epstein ties
- Hegseth to brief House Republicans on White House goals for party-line package
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