Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb on Tuesday argued that the city has grounds to disobey Congress’s move to ensure residents are beneficiaries of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.
Earlier this year, Congress passed a disapproval resolution that prohibited the District of Columbia from preventing city residents from claiming new tax deductions under Trump’s 2025 tax law. In an opinion issued this week, Schwalb contended that Congress’s action came too late to affect taxpayer filings in 2025, asserting that at the time, the tax season had already begun and lawmakers did not specify in the resolution that the legislation was retroactive. The move could set up an unprecedented legal battle between the district and the Trump administration regarding the city’s home rule status.
Schwalb also argued that opponents missed a critical deadline to successfully throw out district legislation, making Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s tax cuts unapplicable to the district’s local tax code. Congress has 30 legislative days under the Home Rule Act to review or disapprove district legislation before it becomes law, but the Senate passed the disapproval resolution on day 31, and Trump signed the measure about a week late, Schwalb wrote in an opinion sent to Glen Lee, the district’s chief financial officer.
District tax filers should proceed in the current filing season without any disruption or change to the rules, and the district tax code should recouple with the federal tax code for the 2026 tax year, Schwalb argued.
Congress’s resolution sought to repeal a portion of a Washington budget law passed last year that blocked residents from obtaining various tax cuts etched into Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, including no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, a car loan interest deduction for qualifying vehicles, and a senior tax deduction.
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Washington critics have warned the action could delay approximately $400 million in anticipated tax revenue and require roughly $600 million in spending cuts over the next four years.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House and Department of Justice for comment.
