Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) will ask the Bush administration today to pay all local costs of last week's inauguration or face a bipartisan revolt in Congress from Washington area lawmakers, Davis's spokesman said.
The White House broke with precedent and directed the District last week to divert $11.9 million from federal homeland security grants for projects across the region to pay for most of the city's estimated $17.3 million in inauguration expenses.
Davis, chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, which oversees District affairs, said if the White House fails to respond, area Republicans and Democrats are prepared to seek funds as part of the administration's request to Congress for $80 billion to pay for operations in Iraq.
"Davis is confident that the Office of Management and Budget will see the light and realize the District and the entire region should not have to foot this bill," Davis spokesman David Marin said. If he is unsuccessful, Davis "doesn't see any choice but to seek special appropriations as part of the supplemental."
Northern Virginia's lone Democratic House member, both of Maryland's senators and six of its congressmen -- all Democrats -- have supported efforts by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) to urge the White House to reconsider its stance. Davis also has spoken with Rep. Frank R. Wolf, a fellow Northern Virginia Republican and a senior member on the House Appropriations Committee, Marin said, adding that he believes Virginia's U.S. senators, John W. Warner (R) and George Allen (R), are in agreement.
"The region's delegation were on board when they saw the impact on the District," Marin said. "They are even more on board as it becomes clearer that the funds involved go to projects throughout the region."
Marin added: "For Davis, it was bad enough when the District was the target of this unfunded mandate. Now we're talking about his own back yard."
Office of Management and Budget spokesman Chad Kolton said OMB has identified two ways the District could pay its costs: from a $15 million annual federal fund created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to reimburse the District for security-related costs; and from an Urban Area Security Initiative grant begun by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003 for high-threat areas. The grant money technically goes to the District but is shared with suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia.
The District has said it has committed all but $5.4 million of the revolving fund and must tap regional grants for $11.9 million. But Kolton said there is more money, about $20 million, in the revolving fund.
Norton welcomed Davis's action. "The bipartisan nature of this effort in the Congress is the only thing that can overcome the reluctance of the administration," she said.
Wolf spokesman Dan Scandling declined to comment but released a Jan. 12 letter to OMB Director Joshua B. Bolten, in which Wolf wrote: "I just don't think it's right to ask the District of Columbia to use its homeland security funding for this purpose when those funds must be available to support security needs all year long."
Warner's office declined to comment. Allen spokesman John Reid said Allen would consider any Davis proposal, with the view that the Bush administration should not break with precedent.
