The D.C. Council set aside $20 million worth of additional financial assistance for excluded workers during a final vote on the $19.5 billion budget for 2023, partially addressing a demand from activists who said undocumented residents, returning citizens, and workers in the informal economy are still suffering from the impacts of the pandemic.

The funding will extend the D.C. Cares program, which launched in 2020 to assist workers otherwise ineligible for government assistance offered during the pandemic, like expanded unemployment benefits and stimulus payments. So far $41 million worth of assistance has been provided.

This year, the coalition representing some 15,000 excluded workers in D.C. pushed the council to appropriate $160 million for additional financial assistance, but lawmakers were not able to find the money for it. Instead, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson added a provision to the budget earlier this month making undocumented workers who have a tax ID eligible for the earned-income tax credit, which was expanded last year.

But ahead of Tuesday’s vote Councilmember Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) settled on a second option: excluded workers will get $20 million in financial assistance should the city report more revenue than expected during its quarterly estimates. (In recent years revenue has come in above projections, leading to budget surpluses. That money is usually split between affordable housing, infrastructure spending, and reserves.)

Lawmakers unanimously approved Silverman’s proposal — which will amount to a $1,000 payment for each excluded worker — brushing aside opposition from Mayor Muriel Bowser.

“Together, D.C. has allocated over $41 million to support excluded workers and make it through when the economy was closed. Now, D.C. is open and job opportunities abound; however, the council will still take a vote on using $20 million of future revenue to fund a program intended to support workers when there were no opportunities,” Jenny Reed, Bowser’s budget director, said in a statement. “Today, employers are scouring for workers, residents want to get back to work, and the council could better support residents by helping us connect people to these existing opportunities.”

But leaders of the Excluded Worker Coalition, which pushed for the assistance, said help was still needed, regardless of whether the economy has been recovering.

“We know that the pandemic is not over. Many families still cannot find work and especially with rising prices, many families cannot afford food, gasoline, and other necessities. We need those who make decisions in this city to understand that we are the workers who clean their homes, disinfect their homes after they test positive for COVID, cook their meals, maintain their gardens and do all the jobs that no one else wants to do, and they cannot exclude us,” the coalition said in a statement.

Where Silverman did not get support from her colleagues was on a proposal to move a planned expansion of paid leave benefits for private-sector workers up to July 1, from the current Oct. 1.

Earlier this year, a surplus in the program prompted the city’s chief financial officer to say that benefits could be expanded to 12 weeks from the current eight, and that the tax rate paid by businesses for the program could be cut in half. While the initial plan was for both steps to take effect on July 1, the actual expansion of benefits was delayed during the budget process to Oct. 1, the start of the next fiscal year.

On Tuesday, Silverman tried to change that back to July 1, using half of a $14 million pot that had been set aside to purchase the former Exxon gas station on one end of the Key Bridge in Georgetown to pay for it. She said the city’s plans for the site — which include a possible electric vehicle charging station, terminus for a gondola across the Potomac River, or location for a Metro entrance if a new tunnel is ever built — remain too speculative to justify buying the former gas station.

“I appreciate a lot could be down with this site, but none of the projects are close to being ready,” she said, adding that expanding paid leave more quickly would have immediate benefits. “It has the certainty of helping our residents spend time with their loved ones, whether they be for joyous reasons or really tragic ones.”

The proposal drew immediate opposition from Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), who said the site would benefit projects that could help get people out of gas-powered cars. “We have a once in a generation opportunity…for electrification and transit equity,” she said.

“This purchase has a long-lasting value for the District,” echoed Mendelson. “If we don’t act now, we lose everything.”

Silverman’s proposal ultimately was voted down 8-5.

In another change to the budget, lawmakers approved an amendment from Mendelson that will implement provisions of a proposed bill that ends the D.C.’s practice of not allowing residents to renew their driver’s license if they have any unpaid traffic tickets or debts with the city. Advocates for the change say D.C.’s practice is an outlier among states, and disproportionately impacts Black and low-income residents.

Tuesday’s votes largely bring to a close the city’s annual budget season, with lawmakers having signed off on a spending plan that dramatically increases funding for affordable housing; gives Bowser money she asked for to hire more police officers while also adding funding for violence interruption efforts; directs additional money to schools with a high number of low-income students; and allocates funding for renovations of schools and the construction of a new indoor athletic facility at RFK and a new wing of the D.C. Jail.

The council will cast a final vote on the Budget Support Act, the package of laws that accompany the budget, on June 7. Earlier this month, a majority of lawmakers defeated a provision in the BSA proposed by Bowser and backed by Mendelson that would have repealed a 2021 council law that gradually pulls police officers out of D.C. schools through 2025.