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WARD 1 UPDATE
Hello Neighbors:
We should be incredibly busy at the Council right now with budget oversight hearings, making adjustments to the Mayor’s proposed FY26 budget. We should also be reviewing a supplemental budget for FY25 – something we do every spring, to adjust the budget based on revenue and spending to date.
But things are strangely quiet right now because we are waiting on the U.S. House of Representatives to fix the D.C. budget mess they created in the Continuing Resolution they passed in early March. Without the fix, D.C. can’t spend according to the FY25 budget we passed almost a year ago, which was approved by the House, and which is 100 percent our money, not federal dollars.
If the House doesn’t pass the budget fix, we’re going to have to cut $1 billion from the budget more than halfway through the budget year – the damage will be draconian, impacting public safety, city services, and education.
Even without a forced cut by Congress, it was going to be a difficult spring. Revenue projections are down, meaning we could have to reduce the FY25 budget for the remaining months of the fiscal year, and settle a FY26 budget that will be our most challenging in years. There are so many important initiatives of recent years that are at risk – early childhood educator pay, rental assistance, education and more.
The Mayor, my Council colleagues, and I have been reaching out to members of Congress. I hope we can move out of limbo soon and get to work on creating the best budgets we can with the resources that are available.
An Executive Order
On March 27, the President issued an executive order to “make D.C. safe and beautiful.” As someone who moved here 23 years ago and is raising my own family in D.C., I know that it’s already great. And I can tell you the constituents I serve every day, are proud to live, work and play here.
To be honest, the order calls on D.C. to do things we are already doing and requires federal agencies to do things they are already doing.
It also calls for collaboration between the federal government and D.C. government. “Collaboration” can mean a lot of things (we already collaborate extensively with the federal government on presidential protection, first amendment activity, policing and city services in the many small federal parks in D.C. far from the Mall).
I’ll be closely monitoring any attempt to pressure D.C. to take action that is not aligned with our values or laws or usurps our authority to self-govern.
Knowing our rights
I’ve received quite a few inquiries about an incident a little over a week ago during which federal immigration officials visited H.D. Cooke Elementary School during school arrival time and attempted to detain a staff member there.
Thankfully, everyone remained calm and knew their rights. They asked to see a warrant, and when agents could not produce one, the agents left. I commend the quick actions of those who worked to keep our community members safe.
The most effective thing we can do in these situations is to remain calm, stick together, and make sure that everyone knows their rights. We have collected resources on our website from trusted organizations with the necessary expertise.
I have always been a strong supporter of immigrants in our community and I thank the many people who care deeply about our neighbors and embody our D.C. values through their actions and their concerns.
Read my statement.
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