The D.C. Council will probably vote next week on a measure that would allow it to file a lawsuit or join in other litigation against Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s administration over its refusal to implement the council’s $40 million budget directive to increase food assistance to thousands of D.C. residents.
The threat of legal action is an escalation in the weeks-long feud between Bowser (D) and the council over a measure to enhance D.C.'s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by 10 percent from January to September, which was contingent on the city having enough excess revenue at the end of the last fiscal year.
But even after the city’s chief financial officer certified the excess funds in the fall, Bowser administration officials have said the Department of Human Services (DHS), which is facilitating several over-budget social services programs with high demand and urgent needs, would not be able to implement the boost because of financial and staffing constraints.
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Last month, the council in a letter urged Bowser to “reconsider the decision to disregard District law,” and move forward with the plan that would benefit 140,000 residents who were expecting their aid to increase this month. The letter noted that D.C. had the slowest rate in the country for processing SNAP applications in fiscal 2022, second only to Guam, while suggesting that DHS had not filled staffing positions funded by the council in last year’s budget. Lawmakers have also pointed to a Dec. 13 opinion from the office of D.C.’s attorney general that cast doubt on whether Bowser’s office could repurpose the nearly $40 million that was legislatively mandated to go toward SNAP.
But with the future of the enhanced benefit still uncertain Tuesday, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) filed notice of a resolution that would grant the council’s general counsel the authority to initiate legal action or intervene in another case involving the SNAP increase; last week, Mendelson said some area nonprofits have hinted that they might sue over the stalled benefits.
The council will probably consider the resolution at its Jan. 9 legislative meeting. Mendelson said he and other lawmakers with concerns about SNAP are still scheduled to meet with Bowser the day before to discuss a potential path forward — including finding a way to reduce DHS’s spending pressures without using the millions intended for the SNAP boost.
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“My ideal would be that we go forward with the SNAP-enhanced benefits as soon as possible, and that the other spending issues that the mayor has identified have a solution,” Mendelson said of the meeting. “The SNAP money was clearly and precisely appropriated without ambiguity — and the case law is very clear that there’s not discretion — so let’s talk and see how we can deal with this range of issues.”
Mendelson said Tuesday that the resolution was primarily intended to protect the council’s appropriation authority. He acknowledged that it’s likely that DHS’s challenges might be too complicated to work out in one day, and said that even if the meeting is positive, it’s likely the resolution will remain on the council’s agenda for a vote.
“But that doesn’t mean that we will be in court the next day. I’m hopeful we will never go to court over this and it will get worked out,” Mendelson said.
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In a statement late Tuesday, Bowser’s office reiterated the fiscal constraints facing the DHS and said it hoped to work with the council toward a more sustainable way to boost food assistance for residents in need.
“With significant fiscal and human resources pressures in our human services cluster, it’s not prudent to increase spending on one program, especially when demand for other programs that support the same people is increasing beyond our current budget,” the statement said. “As our budgets tighten, we have a responsibility to first fund and sustain critical housing, shelter, and the cash and food assistance benefits already in place.”
A spokesman for the D.C. attorney general’s office, which has a statutory obligation to represent the city in lawsuits brought against the District, also declined to comment on any potential litigation (though rare, D.C.’s attorney general has previous stopped representing city agencies in specific legal matters, asking them to seek outside counsel instead).
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Several lawmakers and advocacy groups have decried the Bowser administration’s rationale around not implementing the SNAP increase. Advocates disrupted the mayor’s remarks Monday during the annual Bowser administration-led 5K run, and last month projected a message onto the Wilson Building.
Council member Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) said in a statement Tuesday that he and other council members “were concerned about the mayor’s pattern of taking from safety net programs to pay for her pet priorities.”
Two months ago, White recalled, the council blocked Bowser’s attempt to redirect $20 million that had been set aside for the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program to replenish funds for a separate program, for families experiencing homelessness. White, who chairs the housing committee, oversees both DHS-led programs.
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“I had conversations over the holiday with Chairman Mendelson about legal options to compel the mayor to follow the law, and I fully support his resolution authorizing a lawsuit,” White wrote.
The last time D.C. lawmakers sued the mayor was in 2014, when the council sued Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt during a dispute over budget autonomy. A year before, District voters approved a referendum that allowed the city to spend locally raised funds without a congressional appropriation. Gray and DeWitt had argued that the measure had no legal effect and instead violated Congress’s constitutional authority over the District.
In 2016, after the suit had been tied up in court for years, a D.C. Superior Court judge sided with voters determining that the council, and not Congress, has the power to control locally raised dollars. By then, Bowser had become mayor and deviated from Gray’s position, siding with the council.
Meagan Flynn contributed to this report.
correction
A previous version of this article said that advocates disrupted the mayor's remarks on Thursday during the annual Bowser-administration-led 5K run. The event was on Monday. The article has been corrected.
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