The legislation enacted earlier this month to fund the federal government for the rest of fiscal year 2025 will deeply harm the District of Columbia . It will force D.C. to cut its fiscal year 2025 budget by $1 billion by limiting how much it can spend of its own, D.C.-raised funds to 2024 levels. These are funds D.C. raises from its own residents and businesses (not from federal sources) to fund schools, firefighters, child care providers, businesses, and many other services in the District. The Senate passed a standalone bill on a bipartisan basis to let D.C. continue operating under its enacted fiscal year 2025 budget and spend its own funds, as it has already allocated. The House should move quickly to adopt the Senate bill.

To be clear, forcing D.C. back to its 2024 funding levels for local funds saves the federal government nothing. It only stops D.C. from operating under its balanced and enacted budget, spending revenue that it has raised — from which it has already appropriated funds. So restoring DC’s ability to spend its own funding would not have a cost to the federal budget.

Under the District’s Home Rule law, Congress must approve the D.C. budget — which it already did. Congress authorized the city to spend its funds at the level approved by the D.C. Council and mayor with bipartisan support last year, including the GOP-controlled House of Representatives and Speaker Mike Johnson. The 2025 budget bill known as a full-year continuing resolution contradicts the previous bipartisan approval of the District’s budget.

For the last 20 years, Congress has allowed D.C. to continue spending its own local revenue when it passes bills to avoid a government shutdown. It must not take a different approach now.

The District of Columbia is not a federal agency nor a state, although it takes on many responsibilities states usually hold such as administering Medicaid, funding schools and child care, and providing unemployment insurance and other public supports.

D.C. is about halfway through its fiscal year. Forcing D.C. to cut $1 billion from its budget now would cause immediate and devastating cuts to local services that District residents, visitors, and workers depend on. That includes things like public transit, public safety, schools, child care, and District staff including firefighters and emergency responders, among many others.

These harms will affect every quadrant of the city and residents, commuters, and visitors as basic public services like trash collection and public safety diminish. The impacts will fall disproportionately on people with the least means and fewest resources, and on communities of color in D.C. due to long-standing inequities in education, employment, and housing.

These harms would ripple beyond D.C. into the neighboring economies of Maryland and Virginia and the broader regional economy. D.C. is deeply connected to the rest of the region: Maryland and Virginia residents work in D.C. and vice versa, and business owners sell to customers across jurisdictions .

If Congress forces D.C. to make a billion-dollar cut to its budget, the District’s budget rules will force sharp cuts to planned infrastructure improvement projects such as those that will improve road safety, modernize school buildings, and improve regional transit.

D.C.’s current credit ratings are strong thanks largely to prudent budgeting practices. The District also has substantial reserves, and it has received clean audits for 28 consecutive years.

But a $1 billion budget cut would put that high credit rating at significant risk of a downgrade. Fitch Ratings indicated that it is likely to downgrade D.C.’s credit rating under the enacted continuing resolution. Moody’s has already put D.C.’s credit rating under review as well, largely triggered by DOGE’s cuts to the federal workforce. If the rating agencies downgrade the District’s credit, future projects such as improving roads and bridges, modernizing schools, and improving train and bus service would cost much more.

Congress already approved D.C.’s 2025 budget last year, and it needs to ensure that the District can continue to spend its own resources in line with that budget. As the Senate has already done, the House must give the District the freedom to continue spending its own local dollars to fund schools, public safety, child care, and other critical services to support the people who live, work, and do business here.