Photo by Alexander Perry.
Mayor Vincent Gray submitted a letter to the Office of Management and Budget today declaring that all D.C. government operations are essential and will go on even if the federal government shuts down. Oh, it’s on.
“I have determined that everything the District government does – protecting the health, safety and welfare of our residents and visitors – is essential,” Gray said in a release. “It is ridiculous that a city of 632,000 people – a city where we have balanced our budget for 18 consecutive years and have a rainy-day fund of well over a billion dollars – cannot spend its residents’ own local tax dollars to provide them the services they’ve paid for without Congressional approval. Congress can’t even get its own fiscal house in order; they should be taking lessons from us rather than imposing needless suffering on us. I will not allow the safety and wellbeing of District residents to be compromised by Congress’s dysfunction.”
The city outlined yesterday what services would be on hold if the federal government shuts down. This includes the closing of public libraries, delayed trash pickup and no baby panda camera. OMB now has to respond to the request.
Update: Here’s a statement about Gray’s letter from Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).
“As I have repeatedly told my colleagues throughout my service in Congress, no member of Congress, myself included, should ever tell the District of Columbia what to do or how to spend its locally raised funds. Under the Home Rule Act, the mayor is the chief executive officer of the District, and I will not second guess his determination that all D.C. government operations are essential and will therefore continue if the federal government shuts down on October 1. The city is well aware of the legal and political risks of its actions. The fact that the city has felt driven to circumvent the congressional process highlights the need for D.C. to be freed from being embroiled in federal matters and be granted autonomy over its own budget, as is the case of every other state, and other locality and territory in the country. The District government is not a federal agency and should not be treated as such for any purpose, especially federal appropriations. While the Antideficiency Act applies to federal and District employees, the law, and Office of Management and Budget and Department of Justice interpretations of it, gives agency heads – in this case, the mayor – broad discretion in determining which federal operations are essential during a shutdown and may therefore continue. Nevertheless, I will continue to urge House and Senate leaders to pass legislation authorizing the District government to spend its local funds in the event of a federal shutdown, as a Republican-led Congress did for portions of the 1995-1996 federal government shutdowns.”
Second update: DC Vote executive director Kimberly Perry has also released a statement about the mayor’s letter.
“This is a historic day in DC’s fight for equality and self-determination. Our mayor and Council have now made it clear that we will not scramble to prepare for a shutdown that would punish the people of DC because partisan battles have paralyzed the federal government. The absurdity of congressional control of DC’s local tax dollars is exactly why the Council and the Mayor backed the budget autonomy referendum that DC voters overwhelmingly approved earlier this year. We look forward to the time when our budget law becomes effective in 2014, and the District will be treated like any other jurisdiction when Congress fails to pass a budget.”
