With a federal shutdown imminent, the District is bracing for impact on everything from museums and libraries to trash pickup, even as the mayor has taken a defiant stance.
Mayor Vincent Gray has maintained the city will remain open, designating the work of all D.C. agencies as “essential” and therefore immune to closure if lawmakers fail to pass a budget stopgap before the next fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
In a rare move for a D.C. leader, Gray laid out his resistance to the shutdown in a letter to the Office of Budget and Management this week – a move the District’s attorney general said flew in the face of federal law. As an alternative, city lawyers approved the use of a special reserve fund Friday to cover pay for D.C.’s more than 30,000 employees until Oct. 15
The opposition underlines D.C.’s strengthening push to control its own budget, which Congress authorizes the city to spend but local tax dollars mostly fund and city officials set.
Government shutdowns – typically the result of high-tension budget battles and partisan gridlock – have played out 17 times since 1976, though services in D.C. such as police, fire and public schools have remained operational.
Lawmakers and experts have said they expect the government to shut down. The dispute between Republicans and Democrats is a mile long, but conservative lawmakers’ central objective is delaying funding for the Affordable Care Act.
Students with work-study jobs at federal agencies could be told to stay home, said Kent Springfield, director of federal government relations. Faculty who have federal grants or contracts might have their work suspended, he added.
“We continue to monitor the possibility of a government shutdown closely,” Springfield wrote in an email Friday. “While a shutdown could have serious consequences for the region and the country, we expect that the direct impact on students and faculty may be minimal.”
Springfield said the University would continue to operate on a normal schedule, and students should not see disruptions to their financial aid during a temporary shutdown.
University Police Department Chief Kevin Hay, who worked for the National Park Police for more than 25 years before he came to GW, was a sergeant when the government closed in the mid-1990s. He said officers’ paydays were pushed off for almost a month.
“And as you can imagine, that’s tough to deal with when no money’s rolling in and you’ve got mortgage payments to make,” Hay said in an interview Friday. “But you kind of know that going in. When you swear the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, you’re going to do it whether the government is having issues or not.”
Jack Evans, who represents Foggy Bottom on the D.C. Council, said Gray’s resistance to the shutdown means any impact on GW “should be close to nil.”
“I’m hoping we stick to our guns,” Evans said.
Even if Congress does not specifically permit city agencies to stay open, D.C. could try to use its citywide referendum passed earlier this year to get around it.
Residents voted in April to give D.C. the power to spend local tax dollars without congressional approval, allowing the city to avoid shutdowns. But some lawmakers and city officials have questioned if the measure, which goes into effect at the start of the new year, is legal.
– Brianna Gurciullo contributed to this report
This article was updated Sept. 29 at 4:54 p.m. An earlier version of the article had inadvertently been published.
