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Dear Friend,

I've been updating you in my regular newsletter about the budget work at the Council. And earlier this week, the Committee on Transportation and the Environment voted unanimously to approve the budget recommendations my team and I presented and worked on over the past month. This is the next step in how the Council passes a city budget using your tax dollars, so I'd like to run through those changes with you now and let you know where things stand.

I'll note that every Council committee has finished making its recommendations – I'll dive into some of those changes as we get closer to the full budget votes in a couple weeks to be sure you get a complete picture of the Council's work. But for this update, I'll share updates on the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, which I chair.

To save you and me some time, I won't be able to go into detail about everything included in the budget. But if you really want to dig in beyond the main points, you can read the Committee Report (see the draft budget report under "Other Documents" here). Otherwise, I hope this summary gives you a sense of the Council's priorities when it comes to, well, transportation and the environment.

Quick Background: Budget Process 

The Council's budget process can be summed up in two phases after the Mayor sends the Council her proposal: Committee work and full Council work. This week, we completed the committee work. All of the public hearings, sometimes featuring hundreds of witnesses, were to understand how different proposals in the Mayor's budget would impact residents and our shared values. 

Each committee takes all of that information and feedback and uses it to inform changes to the proposed budget. The changes made, and why, are the bulk of what's in that committee report I linked to above, as well as charts detailing where money gets moved around. Then, the committee holds a vote on the Chair's recommendations. After the vote, the full Council begins work on the entire budget, instead of pieces of the pie. That's the process we're about to start.

So, let's run through what the Committee on Transportation and the Environment has done.

New STEER Act Tools to Tackle Dangerous Driving

Most people slow down once they get a speeding ticket or two, but there are too many drivers who recklessly speed, run stop signs and red lights, and put everyone at risk. One of my top priorities as Chair of this Committee is bringing accountability to anyone who drives recklessly, no matter whether they live in DC or elsewhere.

I'm excited that, in this budget, we're funding another part of the STEER Act: targeting people repeatedly driving dangerously and at high speeds on our streets. That driver will now accumulate points based on how fast they're driving, and if they hit 10 points in any six-month period, their car is immediately eligible for booting and towing. And before they can get their car back, they have to take a safe driving course. Notably, this applies whether they pay their tickets or not. Just because someone can pay a dangerous speeding ticket over and over again doesn't make them a safer driver! These newly funded provisions build on the parts of the STEER Act that I funded last year to give the Attorney General the authority to sue drivers with dangerous driving records. In fact, there were more lawsuits the Attorney General announced just this week. 

The budget also includes $106 million in funding for the District Department of Transportation to make street safety improvements to High Injury Networks, which are the corridors where we see the most crashes, deaths, and injuries.

Catastrophic Cuts to the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund + Staying the Course on Our Biggest Climate Commitments

During the vote, it was wryly noted we're struggling to reverse a significant cut to clean energy investments and batting back environmental law slowdowns while DC has suffered under extreme heat the last few days. Climate change is happening, and we can't pretend it's a problem to solve some other day. Unfortunately, the agency that had the most reductions in the Mayor's proposed budget was... the Department of Energy and the Environment. WAMU did a thorough story on the cuts (and who loses out with them) earlier this week before our vote.

We weren't able to reverse the full $71 million cut to the District's main climate programing fund – the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund – but we did take a number of big steps to keep DC on track to lower utility bills through electrification, address the most significant sources of emissions and pollution, clean our rivers, and stay on track to become a net-neutral carbon city by 2032.

• We restored $5.3 million to the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund to continue to modernize and upgrade low- and middle-income households that want to lower their utility costs and improve indoor air quality through my Healthy Homes law.
• To protect the DC Green Bank (which is helping finance the growth and development of affordable housing and lowering utility costs for businesses and residents) from future cuts, we're providing $250,000 for the DC Green Bank to pursue the issuance of "green bonds" as a more reliable way to get capital to grow their portfolio and impact.
  
• We protected both the District's Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) and the Net-Zero Construction laws, which are the most significant ways the District can reduce its carbon emissions and improve air quality. Keeping these laws in place is our commitment to leave our children and grandchildren with a DC that has meaningfully advanced the climate fight.
  
• Finally, sometimes one person can make all the difference! That's why we transferred $173,000 to the Council's Committee of the Whole to fund a senior manager position within the Department of Buildings to assist with green building issues, including the Green Building Advisory Council and agency consultation with BEPS and Net-Zero compliance with private buildings.

Restoring Full Funding to the Anacostia River's 'Bag Fee' for Jobs and Waterway Cleanup Efforts

Two years in a row, the Mayor's proposed budget has swept all of the money generated by the city's "bag fee". The bag fee is meant to take trash out of our rivers and provide full-time jobs to DC workers who help get more school children and residents to experience our waterways and all they have to offer. I'm happy to report that, also for the second year in a row, we've secured funding to reverse all of those cuts and save those jobs, including the teams who use trash collection boats to pull tons of plastic out of the Anacostia.

Additionally, this budget includes: 

• $5,100,000 for stormwater management infrastructure to prevent pollutants and runoff from reaching the Anacostia River; and
  
  
• $11 million to support Anacostia River dredging and cleanup. 

Embrace Permanent Open Streets

This budget also funds the PLAZA Act, a law I wrote and led the Council to pass last year that takes all the great lessons we've learned from years of DDOT's Open Streets events and takes the next logical step: Create a more vibrant street life by picking three streets ripe for those benefits and closing them more regularly to become pedestrianized plazas where people can spend time rather than drive through.

We already know what this looks like, because it happens every weekend in the heart of Capitol Hill: Eastern Market! Every Saturday and Sunday, we close 7th and C Streets SE to cars, and the result speaks for itself. So, my goal here is to figure out where else we can replicate the success of Eastern Market to create great spaces for more people and give our local businesses a big-time boost. 

What's in the Budget for Walking, Biking, Driving, and Transit?

While the items above are big news, most people will experience this budget as they walk, drive, roll, bike, scoot, or ride on Metrobus or Metrorail. And the budget we advanced this week has a lot to like for getting around the District. Here's a quick rundown: 

• Approves $103.5 million for sidewalk expansion and repairs. Last year, I funded this increase because I was tired of how long it takes to repair a sidewalk compared to a pothole. Glad to see it remain in the budget!
  
  
• Approves $31.8 million for bike lane construction. 
  
  
• Approves $200 million for street paving.  
  
  
• Approves $45.6 million for Vision Zero safety improvements and asset hardening projects (i.e., turning flexiposts into more attractive, permanent installations that still achieve the safety goals). 
  
  
• $6 million to support the Safe Passage Program zones in Ward 8 and transportation for students in Ward 7.
  
  
• With the DC Streetcar set to cease operations in FY27 under the Mayor's proposal, I funded $250,000 to establish a “Future of H Street / Benning Road Corridor Transit” planning project to plan for a better connection between Union Station, H Street, Benning Road, and whatever comes at RFK Stadium. We need to plan for it now. 
  
  
• $76 million in additional funds to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to support bus and rail services. The total budget ensures WMATA stays on good footing, continues the popular 24/7 bus routes, and funds the Better Bus changes going into effect on Sunday.
  
  
• Reallocates $30.5 million to the Bus Priority capital project to allow DDOT to continue to be bold in improving bus service with priority lanes across the city.
  
  
• Adds $250,000 to continue the District’s E-Bike Incentive Program, which I created two budget cycles ago. 
  
  
• Expands the Capital Bikeshare program by $13 million and adds $73 million to build out the District’s multi-use trail network. 
  
  
• $45 million for design-build of a pedestrian tunnel in NoMa to better connect the Union Market District to WMATA’s Metrorail. 
  
  
• Right-sizes vehicle fees based on the weight of the vehicle to better reflect damage to our roads at the Department of Motor Vehicles, and modifies the fees for "Emergency No Parking" reservations to minimize how much time construction dumpsters take away street parking in residential areas.

OK, that's a wrap on a long email. My hope with an email like this is to give you a quick sense of what's happening. If you really want to dive in, here's the link to our Committee Report, and here's a link to the mark-up vote, where you can listen to me talk about all of these issues in a little more depth. If you took time to testify in person, remotely, or in writing, thank you for getting involved. We took a lot of guidance from what we heard the public share.

Finally, while the budget isn't done yet, I would like to shout out my Committee staff who worked long hours for the past month to get this budget to a much better spot and deliver it on time for the public to review: Thanks to Kevin Whitfield, my Committee Director, and his team of Connor Fagan and Anthony Thomas-Davis. 

Hope to see you at Open Streets on Saturday!

Charles Allen