U.S. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) in 2009. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The D.C. Council will vote next week on emergency legislation to declare all D.C. government employees and operations are essential, Chairman Phil Mendelson said today.
“Currently, the District is unfairly tethered to the federal appropriations process, meaning important local government services are placed in jeopardy by unrelated national budget squabbles,” Mendelson said in a release. “An orderly society cannot function without government, as residents and businesses depend on government services. Government, therefore, is ‘essential.’”
The bill would authorize for the over 30,000 D.C. government workers to be paid from the “contingency cash reserve fund.” As of the third quarter of 2013, the contingency reserve fund had $164 million.
Meanwhile, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said in a press release that she will ask Congress to pass her District of Columbia Government Shutdown Avoidance Act of 2013, which would “would permanently prevent D.C. government shutdowns by authorizing the District government to spend its local funds in the event of a federal shutdown, just as every other jurisdiction in the country is permitted to do.” Norton, who introduced the bill earlier this month, will speak on the floor of the House of Representatives at 5:30 p.m.
“The Mayor has taken steps to keep the city open, but more continuing resolutions could be coming shortly,” Norton said in a release. “As we move closer to the Republican government shutdown, the need to free D.C.’s government from the grasp of Congress has never been clearer. Continuing resolutions are having a punitive effect on the District, an innocent party to this federal dispute. Only legislation like budget autonomy and my permanent shutdown avoidance bill can keep the city from being continually embroiled in these federal fights.”
Instead of sending a shutdown plan to the Office of Management and Budget, Mayor Vincent Gray sent a letter declaring that all D.C. government operations are essential. The OMB has yet to respond.
