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Momentum appears to be flagging among House Republicans to take up a DC budget fix that unanimously passed the Senate less than two weeks ago.
The legislation that’s in limbo would free up about $1 billion for the capital, already-approved money that Congress did not include in the government funding bill that it approved earlier this month. While the fix sailed through the GOP-controlled Senate, top Republicans across the Capitol are openly noncommittal about when it might get a vote — if ever.
“Stay tuned,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Semafor. “I’m not sure yet. We’re working through a bunch of stuff, and that’s one of them.”
While President Donald Trump supports the budget fix, he has yet to help twist arms on the right, where there’s little interest in helping Congress’ home base unlock its funding. That creates a higher hurdle for Johnson: He can call a vote on the DC bill with the support of the House Rules Committee or bring it up under an expedited process that requires a two-thirds majority vote for passage.
If Johnson takes the first path, he’ll likely run into trouble with conservatives. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the Rules Committee, told Semafor that he would “vote against that law all day long,”
And if he takes the second path, the speaker would have to rely on Democrats to get the bill to Trump’s desk; that’s a strategy he’s adopted in the past on bills perceived as must-pass, but most Republicans wouldn’t apply that label to the DC budget fix.
Republican leaders have yet to send clear signals that the bill is doomed, but Trump’s direct involvement may end up proving necessary to get it signed into law. A failure by Congress to act would force serious cuts during the rest of the year to services in the city that many lawmakers in both parties call their part-time home, according to Mayor Muriel Bowser and other district officials.
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Bowser has avoided taking a harshly anti-Trump tone since the president returned to office, even as the president’s advisers have embarked on mass firings of federal workers that promise to hurt the DC economy.
The mayor has already proceeded with the removal of the Black Lives Matter mural that she had built in 2020, a symbolic gesture of comity with the Republicans who now control the White House and Congress.
But conservatives in the House are still plainly interested in reining in the city’s decision-making. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., quipped Tuesday that the GOP might consider renaming DC the “District of America,” in line with Trump’s bid to retitle the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
And the chair of the House Freedom Caucus told Semafor on Tuesday that he’s working on a proposal to amend the DC budget fix, which he doesn’t support in its current form.
“We should amend various provisions into the bill, and we’re figuring out what those could be,” said Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md. “We should have a say in some of the crazy things that DC does.”
At least a half-dozen House Republicans said Tuesday that they weren’t familiar with the DC bill or hadn’t yet read the text of what the Senate passed more than a week ago. Some nevertheless raised questions about it: “A number of our administration in DC make more than our cabinet secretaries, so I think us taking a good hard look at the DC budget, it’s probably best for us to do that,” said Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas.
A Bowser spokesperson referred Semafor to the mayor’s latest remarks on the bill, which she said would make sure law enforcement and hospital services “aren’t haphazardly cut in the middle of the fiscal year.”
Notable
- Trump is willing to help get the DC fix passed, but he’s unlikely to “publicly” call on Johnson to bring it up, according to Politico.
- The popular Washington Commanders are urging House Republicans to act on the fix, the Washington Post reported.