D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is taking steps to ensure the District government can keep running even if the federal one shuts down. Norton is proposing an amendment at an Committee on Rules emergency meeting Monday evening that would allow D.C. to spend its local funds for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Norton’s amendment is being offered with the short-term continuing resolution that proposes extending the budget approval deadline to March 14. The current deadline is March 4 for Congress to pass a federal budget to avoid a government shutdown.
“We are hopeful that my amendment will take the D.C. government out of this congressional dispute, whenever and however it ends,” said Norton. “Count this congressional fight as just one more reason that the District needs to have autonomy over its local budget.”
During the November 1995shutdown, Washington — for the most part — stayed open. Then-Mayor Marion Barry liberally defined “essential employees,” meaning about two-thirds of city workers clocked in during the five-day shutdown, according to reports at the time. Police and firefighters, city schools, courts and hospitals remained open.
However, services such as libraries, trash collection and road repairs were shuttered during the week. According to the Washington Post at the time, the shutdown cost D.C. an estimated $78.5 million in revenue that went uncollected or was collected late. The hit revived the argument for city autonomy from the federal government, which approves D.C.’s spending even though most of that spending is from local tax revenue.
Here we are nearly 16 years later, same story — different day.
