Senate Republicans could be on track to approve legislation that would effectively defund public safety in Washington after spending years depicting the nation’s capital as a crime-ridden wasteland.
The funding bill passed by the House of Representatives is missing language included in previous continuing resolutions that would allow the city to spend its own local revenue according to its most recent budget. The result, according to Mayor Muriel Bowser and other city elected officials, would effectively be a $1 billion cut to city operations if Congress doesn’t do anything to adjust the language.
The mayor has said that among the hardest hit sectors could be public safety, and given Republicans’ heavy messaging around bringing law and order to the District, Democrats are pointing to the irony.