Council Approves Cumulative COVID Emergency Bill; Hears from Mayor on Reduced Budget

Wednesday, June 3 - Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Sponsored by: Government of the District of Columbia

https://dccouncil.us/council-approves-cumulative-covid-emergency-bill-hears-from-mayor-on-reduced-budget/

Ever since the COVID public health emergency was declared, the Council has met roughly every two weeks and passed an emergency omnibus bill, each including multiple provisions meant to blunt the health and financial impacts of the pandemic. Emergency bills are a legally-authorized legislative workaround to the elaborate and lengthy process (including a mandatory Congressional review) by which the District would otherwise pass legislation under the Home Rule Charter. Emergency bills require approval by a super-majority of the Council, but after that single super-majority vote, and signature by the mayor, they become effective immediately. The downside to such bills is that they must be fundable under the current budget/financial plan, and they only remain in effect for 90 days.

With prior emergency COVID bills passed on March 17, April 7, April 21, and May 5, the often inter-connected provisions of these many bills would have begun to reach their cascading 90-day expiration dates starting in mid-June.

In an effort to combat this problem, at its most recent meeting, the Council unanimously passed what could itself be considered an omnibus of prior omnibus COVID emergency measures. Provisions on similar topics that were addressed in disparate sections across multiple bills were merged into cohesive unified bill language in the newest measure. But most importantly, by combining all the past bills into a single new piece of emergency legislation, the 90-day clock on the content of each of the prior bills will be restarted back to Day One once the mayor signs the bill. In this way, the terms of the prior bills, many of which residents have already come to depend on, will remain in effect for another 90 days, rather than intermittently expiring.

For more on the newest COVID emergency bill and Mayor Bowser's reduced budget: Go to https://dccouncil.us/council-approves-cumulative-covid-emergency-bill-hears-from-mayor-on-reduced-budget/.