President Bush Monday proposed routing more than $730 million to the District as part of his fiscal 2008 budget, targeting dollars for schools and libraries but reducing payments for courts and public safety.
On a national scale, the $2.9 trillion budget is leaner in most areas outside defense.
But the District, officials said, generally fared well.
Citing a $10 million payment for the District’s forensics lab and another $10 million for library reconstruction, Mayor Adrian Fenty’s chief of budget execution, William Singer, described the proposed appropriation asa “good start” to the Bush-Fenty relationship.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton spokeswoman Doxie McCoy said the congresswoman “is pleased with what’s in it for D.C.”
Federal support for education initiatives remained stable between 2007 and 2008.
The Bush budget provides $15 million for public school vouchers, $13 million for charter school expansion, $13 million to improve public school education and $35.1 million to help D.C. residents pay their college tuition.
The $213.8 million proposed for the D.C. court system, a required payment under federal law, fell from $220 million in fiscal 2007. In addition, the $43 million proposed for defender services is $9 million less than the courts requested.
Though the White House didn’t fully support the requested budget, Chief Judge Eric T. Washington said he’s pleased the budget addresses court personnel and provides the old courthouse’s completion.
The president also slashed dollars for protest response and for the costs of providing support to respond to immediate and specific terrorist threats or attacks, according to the budget proposal.
Bush requested $3 million for those cases, down from $9 million in 2007 and $13.5 million in 2006.
“I don’t think it’s a surprise that the priorities of the White House are funding the war in Iraq and not looking at domestic needs, and within that are the needs of the nation’s capital,” said D.C. Council Member Phil Mendelson, D-at large, chair of the judiciary committee.
The budget also includes $347 million for the construction of the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters on the west campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital.
President Bush’s 2008 budget
» $5 million to reimburse the FBI for local use of its forensics lab at Quantico
» $12 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority’s combined sewer overflow
» $50 million for pretrial services
» $1.3 million for the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council
» $1 million to the Crime Victim Compensation Fund
