Fwd: <Press Alert> DC Budget 2026: DC Council Budget Work Session Continues Tues July 8 :: Chair, Phil Mendelson Wants Budget Cuts, Not Revenue Solutions; It's a "Trump-like Attack on DC's Black & Brown Working-Class"

[d.c. forrd]

* fyi *

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: d.c. forrd <dc4re...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 7, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Subject: <Press Alert> DC Budget 2026: DC Council Budget Work Session Continues Tues July 8 :: Chair, Phil Mendelson Wants Budget Cuts, Not Revenue Solutions; It's a "Trump-like Attack on DC's Black & Brown Working-Class"
To: <pr...@dc4reality.com>, <press_...@dcfeedback.com>, <pr...@poorpeoplescampaign.org>, <pr...@dcblm.org>
Cc: Henderson, Christina (Council) <chend...@dccouncil.gov>, <rwh...@dccouncil.gov>, <abo...@dccouncil.gov>, McDuffie, Kenyan (Council) <kmcd...@dccouncil.gov>, <wfe...@dccouncil.gov>, <cal...@dccouncil.gov>, Parker, Zachary (Council) <zpa...@dccouncil.gov>, <jlewis...@dccouncil.gov>, <mfr...@dccouncil.gov>, <bpi...@dccouncil.gov>, Nadeau, Brianne K. (Council) <bna...@dccouncil.gov>, Mendelson, Phil (COUNCIL) <pmend...@dccouncil.gov>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2025 -- updating the July 2, 2025 release

DC Budget 2026:  DC Council Budget Work Session Continues on Tuesday July 8;  At First Session Last Week, DC Council Chair, Phil Mendelson Expressed He Wasn't Interested in Revenue Generating Ideas

Washington, DC —  On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, the DC Council will continue working together on the FY 2026 DC Budget.

The session will be convened in person for Councilmembers and staff and virtually on Zoom for the public from the Chairman’s Conference Room. The budget session will otherwise not be broadcast nor recorded. 

The Council budget session announcement can be found here: https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Hearings/hearings/615

ZOOM LINK HERE:

Topic: FY 26 Budget Work Session Part 2 Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android: https://dccouncil-us.zoom.us/w/88159366876?tk=1I7BRrSYfxBt0tY5y5UXLajmaOtaxKoatVag3G9U_XM.DQgAAAAUhrUu3BZGRk9iMmdfa1MxNjhxcWFuT3lnVnJRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&pwd=0SHxa0IamU42i8fsNVuMnYhSayvvB0.1&uuid=WN_mL6Bp2zrQayZ-KatlFbE-Q Passcode:090715 Phone one-tap: 8778535257,,88159366876#,,,,*090715# US Toll Free 8884754499,,88159366876#,,,,*090715# US Toll Free Join via audio: 877 853 5257 US Toll Free 888 475 4499 US Toll Free Webinar ID: 881 5936 6876 Passcode: 090715

At the June 18th, 14-hour long, public budget hearing where hundreds of people testified against the brutal cuts that tens of thousands of DC residents will face under the proposed budget, The late Professor David Schwartzman, highlighted what he called an “assault on low-income residents:”

"[The] repeal of the DC child tax credit, the ending of the baby bonds program, both of which would reduce racial income and wealth gaps... [C]uts in TANF ... ERAP, SNAP, ... no funding for housing vouchers for individuals experiencing homelessness... " and the list goes on, including massive curtailing of the locally funded longest running DC healthcare program, Alliance Healthcare, pushing 25,000 DC adults over the age of 26 off the program and into certain harm.

During last week's budget work session on Wednesday, July 2, DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson pushed back against proposals by Councilmember colleagues who want to seek out new revenue to reverse the deep cuts found in Mayor Bowser’s proposed FY 2026 budget, which many have called a “MAGA austerity budget.”

See Part 1 and Part 2 of the July 2 Council budget workshop here:
https://dc.granicus.com/viewpublisher.php?view_id=2

The Council Chair, who in the past couple of weeks declared he will "cabin" or preserve  $1B dollars in the budget for a football stadium deal, urged colleagues to prioritize additional cuts to what he called “overspending,” effectively shrinking an already limited budget pie and threatening critical services for DC’s low-income, Black, and Brown residents.

After the budget work session on July 8, the Council may take up the budget for a first official vote currently scheduled for July 14, 2025. Details on the upcoming vote is available here: https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Hearings/hearings/846

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** Rest in Power David Schwartzman **

For more information, contact:

Chris Otten
DC for Reasonable Development
(202) 810 2768