Political Quotes

“this past March, Mayor Marion Barry appeared at a hearing held by the D.C. Subcommittee and testified that, because of the failure of Congress to enact the District's fiscal year 1996 budget until seven months into that fiscal year, the District was in worse financial shape than in March 1995, when the Congress established the D.C. Financial Control Board to bring about the District's financial recovery. I found the Mayor's remarks to be distressing news--particularly in light of the fact that the District had, as the Congress directed, successfully cut its spending and achieved significant workforce reductions. The fiscal year 1995 appropriations bill mandated that the District's spending be cut by $140 million and that 2,000 positions be eliminated from its workforce. A subsequent audit established that both of these requirements had not only been met but had been exceeded. In fact, the District cut a total of 5,600 positions, and reduced spending by $477 million. Today, 4 months since the Mayor's bleak assessment, the situation is still very bad, but it appears there is now some prospect for improvement.”