All week, residents of Washington, D.C., watched the shutdown debate in Congress with anxiety and anger, as one section of the continuing resolution keeping the government open would force on the city an immediate $1.1 billion budget cut.
But on Friday afternoon, shortly after the resolution was passed, the crisis for the District of Columbia seemed to have been averted, as the Senate overwhelmingly approved a separate bill that would allow the city to continue operating under its current budget without interruption. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, cosponsored the legislation, describing it in remarks on the floor as a fix to a “mistake” in the continuing resolution.
The bill has to pass the House and be signed into law by President Trump. Ms. Collins also said that it had been endorsed by Mr. Trump and by Representative Tom Cole, Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, suggesting the bill’s passage in the Republican-controlled House was likely.
Phil Mendelson, the chairman of the D.C. City Council, said in a statement that his office was working with the district’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, “to garner House support,” adding, “I am confident that we will find a solution to this problem that has been handed to us by Congress.”
In a departure from years of practice, the House resolution, written by Republicans, included the district’s budget in a spending freeze across federal agencies that would keep it at last year’s fiscal levels. D.C. officials repeatedly pointed out in news conferences and meetings with lawmakers that federal payments make up only a tiny fraction of the city’s budget, which relies mostly on locally raised taxes, fees and fines. They also emphasized that this fiscal year’s budget, which the city has been operating on for six months, was approved by Congress in previous resolutions.
To account for the freeze, the city would have been forced to make broad cuts and would most likely have had to lay off many city employees, including teachers and police officers.
The turmoil prompted by that prospect only reinforced the district’s essential vulnerability.
With more than 700,000 residents, the city is more populous than both Vermont and Wyoming, but has no voting representation in Congress, holds little control over its criminal justice system and must submit all local legislation for congressional approval.
This year, some Republican lawmakers and even Mr. Trump threatened to strip the city of what limited self-government it currently has by repealing the 52-year-old Home Rule Act, which allows residents to elect a mayor and a City Council. Such a move would put the district entirely under federal control.
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