ENROLLED ORIGINAL
A RESOLUTION
24-137
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
June 15, 2021
To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to adjust certain allocations in
the Fiscal Year 2021 Local Budget Act of 2020 and to amend the deadline for the annual
advance payment to schools.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the Fiscal Year 2021 Revised Local Budget Advance School
Payment and COVID Relief Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2021.
Sec. 2. (a) The Council previously approved a balanced budget for Fiscal Year 2021.
(b) Since the time the Fiscal Year 2021 budget and financial plan was approved, the
federal government appropriated approximately $2.8 billion in COVID public health emergency
relief funds as federal payments to the District of Columbia.
(c) Pursuant to section 446(c) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, approved
December 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 774; D.C. Official Code 1-204.46(c)), the Council must
appropriate those federal payments prior to obligation or expenditure.
(d) Adjustments to the Fiscal Year 2021 budget are necessary to appropriate these
additional federal payments and to respond to the public health emergency and its negative
economic impact on District residents and businesses.
(e) The Fiscal Year 2021 Local Budget Act of 2020, effective October 20, 2020 (D.C.
Law 23-136; 67 DCR 13201), requires advance payments to District of Columbia Public Schools
and District of Columbia public charter schools to be appropriated on July 1, 2021, based on
certain percentages of the total amount of appropriated local funds in the Fiscal Year 2022
budget as approved by the Council.
(f) Due to the ongoing public health emergency, the transmission of the Fiscal Year 2022
Local Budget Act of 2021 was delayed and second and final reading for the bill is scheduled for
August 3, 2021, which would prevent the Mayor from making the advance school payments as
currently prescribed.
(g) There is an immediate need for public schools and public charter schools to have
sufficient funding to prepare for the new school year.
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ENROLLED ORIGINAL
(h) The Fiscal Year 2022 Local Budget Act of 2021, which will provide the appropriation
for public schools and public charter schools, is scheduled for first reading on July 20, 2021. In
order to provide timely payments to support the educational needs of students, the Fiscal Year
2021 Local Budget Act of 2020 must be amended to allow determination of the advance
payment amount to be based on the Fiscal Year 2022 appropriation as approved on first reading,
rather than second reading, and to change the date of the advance payment appropriation from
July 1, 2021, to July 20, 2021.
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances
enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Fiscal
Year 2021 Revised Local Budget Advance School Payment and COVID Relief Emergency
Amendment Act of 2021 be adopted after a single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.
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