In a letter sent to the Republican House leaders earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell came out in support of budget autonomy for the District. But it doesn’t come without a catch — he indicated that while he supports the right of the District to spend its own money without congressional interference, he still backs a restriction on the use of local funds for abortions.

According to Roll Call, McDonnell’s February 9 letter to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) backed the District’s longstanding demand that its budget not be tied to the congressional appropriations process, one that has often broken down and left the District’s government at risk of shutting down. For McDonnell, the annual budget uncertainties faced by the District are of regional concern.

“It is in both Virginia’s and Maryland’s best interest that the District be able to operate without interruption, resulting in the financial certainty that will enable long term planning and better regional cooperation,” he wrote. McDonnell cited Metro as an example of infrastructure in the District that has a large impact on Virginians.

The devil is in the details, though. McDonnell sided with a plan presented by Issa last year to grant the District more budget autonomy while keeping the longstanding prohibition on the use of local dollars for abortions. Mayor Vince Gray, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown rejected the plan only days after Issa introduced it, and are instead hoping that a recent proposal by President Obama that the District be given full budget autonomy work its way through Congress as part of the 2013 federal budget.