R47319 — FY2023 District of Columbia Budget and Appropriations

The District of Columbia (DC) government’s local operating budget and much of its local legislation is subject to congressional approval, pursuant to the plenary legislative authority of Congress over the federal capital granted by the U.S. Constitution. In addition to congressional authority over the DC budget process, annual federal appropriations legislation has typically included a series of federal payments for a variety of services and initiatives in DC. Such legislation also often includes general provisions, specific to DC, that establish fiscal, budgetary, and policy controls on federal (and in some cases, local) DC funds. Each year, the DC government produces a budget through a process coordinated between the Executive Office of the Mayor and the Council of the District of Columbia (DC council). Under the current process, the budget consists of a federal portion and a local portion, which are adopted by the DC council in two separate bills. Once approved, the federal portion is transmitted by the mayor to the President of the United States, who forwards it to Congress for review, possible modification, and approval through the annual appropriations process. The local portion is submitted by the chair of the DC council to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate, for review by Congress. In 2013, DC enacted the Local Budget Autonomy Amendment Act of 2012 (D.C. Law 19-321), which amended DC’s home rule charter to allow for enactment of DC’s local budget after a 30-day congressional review period (also known as the layover period), similar to most other DC laws, as opposed to passing the local budget through the federal appropriations process. After a series of legal and legislative challenges, the act was upheld by a DC Superior Court ruling. The DC government has observed the act in its budget process since 2016. Congress has continued to approve the DC budget in the regular appropriations process. On March 28, 2022, the Biden Administration submitted its full FY2023 budget request, which included $773.9 million in federal payments to DC. The DC government passed a $20 billion budget on September 23, 2022. On July 26, 2022, the House passed a version of the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) appropriations bill in Division D of H.R. 8294, which would provide $793.9 million in federal payments to DC. The Chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations released a draft bill and draft explanatory statement on July 28, 2022, with $791.3 million in federal payments to DC. The President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, into law on December 29, 2022, as P.L. 117-328. Title IV, Division E of the act included $791.9 million in federal payments for DC.

Curated by CRS — every bill listed in this report's relatedMaterials. Edge type cited_in_report, gold confidence.

• HR 268 — District of Columbia Legislative Home Rule Act · 118th Cong
• HR 2617 — Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 · 117th Cong