Congress left town this week without passing legislation to prevent significant budget cuts for Washington, as the measure faces staunch opposition from some conservatives.
While the measure swiftly passed the Senate last month, it has sputtered in the GOP-led House, even as President Trump has publicly called for its passage.
As lawmakers prepared to leave for recess Thursday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said the bill had been placed on the back burner as GOP leadership in both chambers worked to adopt a budget resolution to advance the president’s sweeping tax priorities.
“That’s still been a discussion, and we want to get that done as soon as we can,” he told The Hill. “We’re having conversations with D.C., with the president and the Senate and so we’re going to get there.”
But when asked whether the bill would need to be sent to the Senate to approve potential changes, Scalise said he was unsure.
The holdup in the House comes as GOP leaders has been facing pressure from their right flank to attach potential riders and requirements the Democratic-led District would need to meet to spend its local dollars.
D.C. officials began sounding the alarm about the threat of cuts as Congress moved to pass legislation last month to keep the federal government open and funded through September.
Unlike previous stopgap funding bills, the latest was missing language allowing D.C. to spend its local budget — which consists mostly of funds from local tax dollars, fees and fines — at already approved 2025 levels. D.C. was granted what’s known as “home rule” in the 1970s, but its budget is still approved by Congress.
Without that language in the bill, D.C. was treated like a federal agency and forced to revert to 2024 spending levels, which city officials said would result in them being forced to cut $1 billion in the last half of the fiscal year.
The Senate approved a fix to prevent those cuts shortly after the federal funding stopgap's passage.
“This bill would simply fix a mistake in the House [continuing resolution] that prevents the District of Columbia from spending its own tax dollars as part of its budget, which Congress routinely approves,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said of the measure at the time.
Trump also called for the GOP-controlled House to “immediately” take up the D.C. budget bill, even as he ramps up efforts to exert control over the District’s affairs.
However, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has also faced pressure from his right flank to delay consideration of the bill as conservatives have floated requirements for the District. Some Republicans have also questioned the severity of the potential cuts D.C. faces.
“We should get the budget resolution agreed to before we take up an issue like whether or not, D.C. should be able to spend that billion dollars on whatever crazy stuff they want to spend it on,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) told The Hill last month.
Harris said conservatives “need a little while to come up with a ...
