Major differences between the House and Senate appropriations for D.C. threaten millions of potential dollars for social services efforts and aspirations for a medical marijuana referendum.
Both the Senate and House appropriations committees last week approved their respective fiscal 2010 Financial Services and General Government budgets, which include the annual federal contribution to the District. The House provided $768.3 million for D.C., about $29 million more than President Barack Obama requested in his budget submission.
The Senate offered $727.4 million, $12 million less than that sought by Obama.
So which chamber will have the upper hand once the budget bills clear both houses and enter conference?
“I think you really never can tell,” said Alice Rivlin, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and the first director of the Congressional Budget Office. “It depends on the personalities and how hard they’re willing to fight for what they believe in.”
The House provided $19 million to support Mayor Adrian Fenty’s “Housing First” initiative, which seeks to place homeless individuals in apartments rather than shelters. There is $5 million to “help youth disconnected from school or work” and $4 million for HIV/AIDS prevention.
The Senate provided nothing for those efforts, nor did it lift Congress’ long-standing ban on a medical marijuana referendum, as the House did.
In the case of homelessness, the Senate committee lauded Fenty’s efforts to replace shelters with permanent housing. But it declined to put any money into the initiative, instead urging the District to apply for federal grants through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Regarding disconnected youth, the Senate noted said the District, in its approved fiscal 2010 budget, “diverted local resources that may have otherwise been devoted to this program to other more pressing, higher priority needs.”
Both budget bills are dominated by the required federal payment for the District’s court system, which comprises roughly three-quarters of either chamber’s appropriation. Also, both bills lift the ban on the use of locally generated revenues to subsidize abortion, as Obama requested.
