D.C. Fumes Over Deal to Avoid Shutdown

WASHINGTON—The last-minute deal that avoided a federal-government shutdown has left District of Columbia Democrats seething over White House concessions on the city's spending and policies.

The agreement prohibited the city from using local revenue for abortions and added $2.3 million to reauthorize a school voucher program that has divided city residents and is opposed by the mayor.

The deal, which pays for the U.S. government through September, also shaved $53 million from city programs, compared with 2010 funding levels. The city's budget for 2010 was about $8.5 billion.

Among the cuts: $18 million from D.C. courts; $15 million from the city's forensics lab; $9 million from the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority; $7 million from a program that helps the chronically homeless; and $4 million from a youth program.

Congress has broad powers over Washington, D.C., including the ability to influence its budget and local policies.

D.C. politicians protested on Capitol Hill Monday. Mayor Vincent C. Gray and six members of the Council of the District of Columbia were among dozens arrested.

"In this particular case the president and the Congress were able to come to a deal at the expense of District residents," said Sekou Biddle, an at-large council member, who was among those arrested.

The White House emphasized Tuesday that Mr. Obama fought off a Republican effort to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood across the country.

"The fact is that the compromise that was reached involved a lot of tough choices," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "The president did not get everything he wanted."

But some observers said the city's policies and leaders invite criticism and congressional intervention.

"The city brings it on itself," said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution.

"Congressional Republicans seek the metaphor for what ails government and the D.C. government is the answer."

D.C. citizens have no U.S. senator, and their delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, doesn't have a vote in the House.

"If one party is looking for a symbolic scalp and the other party is looking for a relatively confined concession, the two of them can usually shake hands….over the District of Columbia," said William Galston, a public policy expert at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. —Siobhan Hughes and Carol E. Lee contributed to this report.

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