The budget autonomy amendment District residents voted to add in April to D.C.’s Home Rule Charge is within days of clearing a major hurdle. This week, the referendum, under which the District would claim the authority to spend its own local revenue without congressional oversight, is scheduled to get to the end of Congress’ review period of D.C. laws.

The amendment passed with 87 percent support, but since April 23, the measure’s backers have taken a cautious line to avoid the congressional flyswatter. But Congress only has 30 legislative days—days on which at least one house is in session, and they do take many days off—to strike down a piece of District legislation, and that cycle is about to complete.

And to date, no resolution has been introduced that would undo the budget autonomy referendum. Still, Congress isn’t entirely unaware of the amendment. A report last week by the House Appropriations Committee attached to its D.C. funding bill for the 2014 fiscal year included language essentially dismissing the April 23 vote as a public opinion, but not binding law.

“The citizens of the District of Columbia have approved a referendum providing local funds budget autonomy beginning in fiscal year 2015,” the report reads. “The Committee considers the recent referendum in the District as an expression of the opinion of the residents, only, and without any authority to change or alter the existing relationship between Federal appropriations and the District.”

Seventy percent of D.C.’s annual budget comes from locally raised revenue. The federal government pays for the rest, including courts, Medicaid, and some education programs.

Kimberly Perry, the executive director of DC Vote, one of the referendum’s lead sponsors, tells WAMU that the organization is “celebrating, but cautiously.”