The Council of the District of Columbia voted on Tuesday to pass an emergency bill that would allow the district to issue marriage licenses during the government shutdown after Mayor Muriel Bowser backed the legislation.
The Marriage Bureau in the D.C. Superior Court has been closed since the shutdown took effect last week, preventing soon-to-be-wed couples from making their union legal. The court is federally funded, thus ceasing some of its nonessential operations amid the funding lapse.
“The inability of District residents, and others choosing to celebrate their marriage in the District, to obtain a marriage license is highly disruptive to personal lives,” Bowser said in a statement ahead of the vote. “I urge the Council to pass this legislation so that the Executive has the authority to issue marriage licenses and authorize officiants during the federal government shutdown.”
Councilwoman Christina Henderson, who introduced the Let Our Vows Endure Emergency Amendment Act of 2025 on Monday, celebrated the bill’s passage.
“Since we are not a state, nor do we control our courts, it has been impossible for individuals who wish to be married in the District of Columbia to do so currently under the status quo,” Henderson said of the shutdown during the council’s legislative meeting Tuesday afternoon.
“I’ve already even, just today, had two couples who emailed wondering when this was going to be finalized, as they have weddings planned in the next week or so,” she added. “While we don’t have the authority to help them continue on to have their weddings at Smithsonian institutions or federal places, I think this is the least we can do on the court side of things.”
Bowser is expected to sign the bill into law. Before the bill’s passage, the mayor thanked Henderson for “moving this emergency legislation.”
The bill is identical in name and purpose to temporary legislation Bowser signed during the 35-day government shutdown in January 2019, when President Donald Trump was in his first term. The current shutdown is the first since the 2016 shutdown.
GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENTERS SECOND WEEK WITH NO BREAKTHROUGH IN SIGHT
The federal shutdown is now on its seventh day, and it appears no resolution between Republicans and Democrats is in sight.
Trump is pressuring Democrats, namely Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to reopen the government after they rejected House Republicans’ continuing resolution over the expiration of healthcare subsidies. The Senate has repeatedly failed to pass partial funding measures from both Republicans and Democrats.
