The Congress could respond by enacting the President's D.C. package that is to come with his budget. The City and the Authority First, services. A focus on services is indispensable not only because poor services are driving residents out. In addition, a skeptical Congress is unlikely to respond to the Authority's recent call for aid for D.C. without bold changes throughout the D.C. government. Each year the city and the Authority have responded to congressionally mandated budget cuts without a service-focused plan for achieving them.
Services are slimmer but often worse, and the bureaucracy remains intact.
No one knows if we're cutting in the right places. No agency reengineering or plan for how large or small agencies should be is being followed. Mayor Barry's Transformation Plan won praise from Congress and the Authority. It included agency consolidations and other streamlining and restructuring. The city and the Authority might look to their own best work.