LWVUS Urges the Senate to Protect DC in CR Negotiations

LWVUS urged the Senate to amend the current continuing resolution (CR) as passed by the US House to allow DC to spend its locally raised revenue.

March 12, 2025

Dear Senator: 

On behalf of the League of Women Voters of the United States (the League), we urge you to amend the current continuing resolution (CR) as passed by the US House to allow the District of Columbia (DC) to spend its locally raised revenue.

As currently written, the House CR would create an immediate $1 billion hole in DC’s local spending budget. The resolution would block DC from spending over $1 billion of locally raised tax dollars and would not save the federal government any money. This money belongs to DC and its taxpayers. Without it, the 700,000 DC residents — including many congressional staff and commuters — and the 26 million tourists who visit the nation’s capital would be heavily impacted by the loss to programs that seek to serve them. 

The CR would require immediate cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars to essential District services such as police and fire, corrections, transportation - including Metro, sanitation, education, health care, and other programs. These impacts include:

• Public safety cuts of:
  • $67 million to the Metropolitan Police Department
  • $42 million to DC Fire and & EMS
• Education cuts of $350 million to public and charter schools
• Health cuts of $28 million to the Department of Human Services
• Water and sewer cuts of $51 million to DC Water 

DC residents already suffer from taxation without representation at the federal level, which is a serious hole in our democracy. The House CR represents a serious government overreach into our local tax dollars. Any CR must include language from CRs for the past twenty years that authorizes DC to spend its locally passed — and balanced — current-year budget. Without this language, DC would have to revert to its FY24 budget, in which local spending is $1 billion less than in the current year. 

For questions, please feel free to reach out to our staff via me at [email protected] or Kristen Kern, Federal Policy and Advocacy Manager at [email protected]. 

Sincerely,

Jessica Jones Capparell 
Director, Government Affairs
League of Women Voters of the US