Immediately after Congress passed the stopgap government funding bill last month, the Senate approved a separate measure to give the D.C. government flexibility to spend its budget how it sees fit.
Without that, D.C. officials warned they’d need to immediately cut $1 billion from their budget, a huge blow to a city already reeling from tens of thousands of DOGE-related layoffs under President Donald Trump.
The House, however, is getting ready to load up the Senate-passed measure with Republican policy prerogatives, complicating its path in Congress and clouding D.C.’s financial outlook.
Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that has purview over the District, said he’s sent feedback to House GOP leadership about the changes Republicans are seeking.
The Senate legislation didn’t include legacy policy riders dealing with abortion and marijuana.
“If they’re going to fix it, then that has to come legislatively,” Joyce said, in a bid to protect his committee’s jurisdiction.
But the House GOP leadership is also facing intense pressure to not bring the fix up at all.
The hardline House Freedom Caucus has urged Speaker Mike Johnson to set the bill aside for the time being as they consider how they’d like to amend the measure. Conservatives have discussed not only marijuana and abortion policies, but also forcing the District to allow concealed carry licenses for handguns.
Remember: the HFC has immense sway over Johnson on almost everything that comes to the floor.
HFC Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said he asked GOP leadership to delay the bill until they can revise the budget resolution and then impose policy requirements on the District.
“If it’s clean, I’m not voting for it. We will fight against it,” Harris told us.
Other HFC members went further and said they wanted to see more congressional control over the District. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) highlighted his bill, the BOWSER Act, which would repeal home rule and reassert congressional authority over the city.
Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) added that he felt Congress was “too hands off” about its authority over D.C. Brecheen signaled he wouldn’t vote for the budget fix unless significant changes are made to what the D.C. government can do.
“I’m not happy with the governance,” Brecheen said. “Washington, D.C. has very limited congressional control. The founders never intended it that way.”
We already scooped that House GOP leadership was considering amending the Senate’s bill to include language to ensure that no D.C. government funding can be used to pay for abortions. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) has said the riders apply without additional congressional action.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) added that the issue needs to be hashed out at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has jurisdiction over the funding bill.
“I want to make sure that – not new restrictions – but things that we’ve had on traditionally, remain on,” Cole said. “Evidently the Senate thinks you don’t need to do anything else. Somebody else will sort that out.”
