US News

DC Mayor confronts Reid over shutdown

WASHINGTON, DC — Washington Mayor Vincent Gray, whose city’s expenditures are authorized by the fiscally shut-down federal government, confronted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — a fellow Democrat — on the steps of the Capitol Wednesday.

“Sir, we are not part of the government,” Gray told Reid, crashing a press conference. “We are simply trying to be able to spend our own money.”

The powerful Senate leader was clearly rankled.

“I’m on your side. Don’t screw it up, OK? Don’t screw it up,” Reid snapped.

DC is using a $144 million reserve to stay open as its federal spending authorization is shut off. That reserve could be exhausted sometime next week, endangering basic services.

The city has to get federal authorization to spend even funds raised locally through taxes on its own citizens — who aren’t fully represented in the House or Senate.

Gray was accompanied by DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

“Democrats, at this critical moment, have abandoned their long-held principles,” fumed Norton, who was at the mayor’s side when he took on Reid.

The House has passed a Republican bill that would allow DC services to continue, but Senate Democrats have resisted taking it up, along with other bills that fund individual agencies but not the entire government.

Gray declared the entire DC workforce “essential” before the shutdown, allowing employees to keep working even as federal agencies furloughed 850,000 of their employees.

Gray went up to Reid in the middle of the news conference, which was attended by other Democratic senators. As Reid began to head back into the Capitol, Gray went over again and delivered his request, eliciting the “Don’t screw it up” response.

When reporters asked the sharp-tongued Reid what he meant by that, he walked away.

Gray didn’t hazard a guess. “You need to ask him. I have no idea what that means,” he said.

With the shutdown in its second week, a surprise visitor turned up at the Capitol — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Christie said he wasn’t there to get involved in the shutdown but added, “It’s never good to keep government closed when your job is to run the government.”