By Chris Kain
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Mayor Muriel Bowser today presented the DC Council with her budget proposals for fiscal year 2026, along with a supplemental budget for the current year that limits spending in line with congressional mandates without resorting to layoffs or furloughs.

In a midday presentation at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Bowser touted the proposals as promoting a growth agenda that she described as essential in order to maintain city services and programs amid the tumultuous economic conditions caused by federal reductions to its workforce and footprint. Affected programs include Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, prompting critics to say the District’s most vulnerable residents would bear an outsized burden.

Bowser said her budget package prioritizes programs and projects that will either keep people and families in DC, draw new residents, create economic activity to fund city programs, or attract new businesses and jobs for city residents. She noted that it includes no new taxes, saying such measures would make the District less competitive.

“We have a shifting economy, and if we don’t shift with it, we will be a city that people will flee. And we can’t have that,” Bowser said at an afternoon press briefing where she described her proposed cuts as being cast as narrowly as possible to limit the impact on local residents and avoid the consequences of a “chainsaw” or “sledgehammer” approach.

“It’s a budget for DC’s future,” she added.

The DC Council now has 70 days to review and amend the mayor’s proposed budget, with key votes slated for July 14 and 28. Public hearings beginThursday, per the amended schedule released last week.

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