Appropriations for FY1999: District of Columbia

Publication Date: November 1998

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Economics; Education

Type:

Abstract:

The District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 1999, was included as Division A, Section 101(c) of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999 (H.R. 4328, P.L. 105-277), enacted October 21, 1998. Several other sections of the Omnibus Act also contain provisions affecting the District of Columbia. Sections 131 - 134 at the end of Division A appropriated an additional $125 million in federal funds for the District of Columbia for the economic development corporation, special education in the DC Public Schools, year 2000 information technology, and transportation infrastructure and economic development projects.

The District of Columbia government and the Control Board submitted to Congress a consensus budget for FY1999. The proposed operating budget of $5.2 billion in local funds had a surplus of $41 million. FY1999 could thus become the third successive year with a surplus for the District. Under provisions of the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Act (P.L. 104-8), the District is to remain under the authority of the Control Board until it has had a balanced budget for four fiscal years in a row. In addition, the District proposed $1.7 billion in capital expenditures over six years.

The House passed H.R. 4380 by a vote of 214 to 206 on August 7, after adding several amendments on the House floor. The Administration opposed provisions in three of those amendments and threatened a veto they were included in the final bill: federal funding for private school scholarships, barring adoptions by couples not related by blood or marriage, and barring the use of local funds for needle exchange programs for illegal drug use. The first two provisions were not included in the final Act, but the third was. The Senate Appropriations Committee marked up and forwarded S. 2333 on July 21. Efforts in the full Senate to add a school scholarship provision to the bill were a factor in preventing S. 2333 from ever reaching the Senate floor for a vote.

The Congress made only a few adjustments in the District's proposed budget of local funds. It removed the $453,000 for Advisory Neighborhood Commissions but permitted the reprogramming funds to cover the ANCs. The Omnibus Appropriations Act provides federal funds to pay for added local spending on charter schools, a fire fighters pay raise, an office of citizen complaint review for the police department, and improvements to the Washington Marina. The Omnibus Act also provides federal funds to entities other than the District government to finance justice functions, economic development and infrastructure efforts, and specified programs. Altogether, the DC Appropriations Act and the offset provisions within the Omnibus Act appropriate $619.590 million in federal funds for the District for FY1999. The DC Appropriations Act includes 69 "general provisions" of policy affecting the operation of the District government. These include repealing the District’s recently enacted residency requirement for new employees, and denying the use of local funds for most abortions or for enforcing the provision of health and other employee benefits to unmarried domestic partners, among many other provisions.