In a dramatic turn of events, the U.S. Senate at 6:30 p.m. on Friday passed a free-standing bill proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that calls for amending the Republican-backed budget reconciliation measure to add language eliminating the measure’s call for a $1.1 billion cut in the D.C. budget.

Schumer’s announcement on the Senate floor that the bill, which was introduced by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), had bipartisan support prompted eight other Democratic senators and one independent to join Schumer in voting for a motion enabling the GOP-backed budget measure to clear a Democratic filibuster requiring 60 votes to overcome.

The cloture motion to end the filibuster passed by a close margin of 62 to 38, with 37 Democrats who strongly opposed the GOP budget measure voting against cloture. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the only GOP senator to vote against cloture.  

The Senate then voted along partisan lines to approve the budget reconciliation measure that still includes the $1.1 billion D.C. budget cut provision in an action that averted a federal government shutdown that would have begun at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, March 15.

Schumer pointed out in the Senate debate over the budget measure that the U.S. House of Representatives, which approved the budget measure containing the $1.1 billion D.C. budget cut four days earlier, will now also have to vote on the freestanding bill exempting D.C. from the House-initiated budget cut when it returns from its recess on March 24.

According to Schumer and others supporting the Collins bill, the bill enjoys bipartisan support in the House, which some political observers say is expected to pass the bill.

The Senate passed the Collins bill by voice vote without a roll call vote being taken after the Senate approved the budget reconciliation measure. 

The House budget reconciliation bill passed March 11 broke from longtime past practices for budget bills by declaring D.C. a federal agency and subjecting it to what D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowler and city officials called an unjustified city budget cut that would have a “devastating” impact on D.C. residents.

The unexpected budget cut, if not reversed now by the House, would require the city to make large scale cuts in its current fiscal year 2025 budget that would impact a wide range of city programs, including programs impacting the LGBTQ community, according to observers.

In his remarks on the Senate floor, Schumer said he agreed with his Democratic colleagues who voted against the cloture motion that the GOP backed budget conciliation bill, which is backed by President Donald Trump, is a bad bill that will be harmful to the country.  

“For sure the Republican bill is a terrible option,” Shumer said on the Senate Floor on Thursday. “But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take … much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” the Washington Post quoted him as saying.

Among those who chose not to join Schumer in voting for cloture to end the filibuster and allow the GOP budget measure to be approved were U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the Senate’s only openly lesbian member, and the two Democratic senators from Maryland and Virginia.

But each of them spoke out strongly in favor of the Collins bill to exempt D.C. from the $1.1 billion budget cut.

D.C. officials had initially asked senators to amend the budget reconciliation measure itself to take out the provision calling for the D.C. budget cut. But such an amendment would have been far less likely to pass, and it would have required the House to approve it. With a House vote on that not likely to happen until March 24, the deadline would have been missed to avoid a government shutdown. 

Although Collins introduced the freestanding bill in cooperation with Schumer and with strong support from U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Senate observers believe the Collins bill would not have received as much support from Senate Republicans if Schumer had not worked out a deal with Senate GOP leaders to garner enough Democratic votes to end the filibuster and secure passage of the GOP budget reconciliation measure. 

A growing number of LGBTQ musicians and performers such as choral singers and orchestra players have joined other performing artists in refusing to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts since its takeover last month by President Donald Trump.

According to local gay musician Stephen Key, who for many years has worked as a contract oboe player at the Kennedy Center, as many as a dozen or more gay and lesbian musicians perform at the Kennedy Center. He said some have resigned their jobs or, like him, are refusing to perform as self-employed musicians at the Kennedy Center.

“I decided after the second cancellation to turn down work,” Key told the Washington Blade. “There are more famous musicians than me who have done the same,” he added. “But I just couldn’t do it anymore. It was after the Gay Men’s Chorus cancellation occurred.”

Key was referring to the decision by the National Symphony Orchestra, which is under the direction of the Kennedy Center, to “postpone” the performance of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, which was scheduled to perform with the orchestra on May 21.

In a statement released to the Blade in February, a National Symphony Orchestra spokesperson said the decision to postpone, which soon after became a cancellation, took place in January before President Trump’s sweeping leadership changes at the Kennedy Center.

The spokesperson, Jean Davidson, said the decision related to the Gay Men’s Chorus was due to “financial and scheduling factors.”

The ultimate cancellation of the Gay Men’s Chorus performance came shortly after Kennedy Center officials cancelled a planned WorldPride related performance of the San Francisco based International Pride Orchestra, and the highly acclaimed children’s musical “Finn.” The officials cited financial reasons for the Finn cancellation and did not publicly say why the international chorus was cancelled.

In a Feb. 14 article, Playbill magazine reported that the creators and composers of “Finn” released a statement denouncing the cancellation as an expression of bias against a theme of “love and acceptance” that could be “read as a metaphor for the LGBTQ+ experience.”

Key said LGBTQ and LGBTQ supportive musicians and others who have worked at the Kennedy Center question the claim that scheduling and financial issues were the actual reason for the postponement and cancellation of the Gay Men’s Chorus performance as well as for the performances of “Finn” and the International Pride Orchestra.

He said musicians and others familiar with the National Symphony fear the real reason is National Symphony officials were concerned that supporting an LGBTQ related performance would result in unfavorable consequences from the Trump administration and the Kennedy Center’s Trump appointed leaders, including the possible loss of their nonprofit tax status from the IRS.

Observers have also pointed out that a statement by Trump that drag performers would no longer be allowed to perform at the Kennedy Center could have played a role in the decision to cancel the Gay Men’s Chorus appearance because drag performers have participated in some of the Gay Men’s Chorus shows.

A bias by the Kennedy Center’s current leadership against LGBTQ performances may also be linked to the Trump administration’s ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or “DEI” programs and public displays, some observers have said.

Earlier in February President Trump appointed himself as chair of the board of the Kennedy Center after ousting longtime chair David M. Rubenstein. He then replaced most of the other board members with his supporters and named gay former diplomat and longtime Trump supporter Richard Grenell as the Kennedy Center’s interim executive director.

Among the organizations that have joined the Kennedy Center boycott by cancelling an appearance there is the hit Broadway play “Hamilton.” Also announcing their cancellation of Kennedy Center appearances were actress and comedian Issa Rae, rock band Low Cut Connie, and singer-musician Rhiannon Giddens. 

Key said that while he has been an oboe player at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center’s opera orchestra, he also has and continues to play with local orchestras and choral groups not affiliated with the Kennedy Center. He said he also serves as Adjunct Associate Professor of Oboe at Shenandoah Conservatory at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.

So, his decision to boycott the Kennedy Center as a musician, unlike other LGBTQ and allied musicians, will not end his career as a musician he points out.  

“The sad part is that the National Symphony, the opera orchestra – these are groups that I’ve played with, and I have friends in all of these groups,” Key said. “They’re kind of innocent bystanders in a sense because they don’t have other jobs. I can walk away from my job there and I’ll be fine,” he said.

“There are plenty of queer people in both of those ensembles and while a lot of people are boycotting the orchestras, they are still having to show up to work every day because that’s their day job.” He added, “So, there’s kind of an awkward situation that’s been made as a result of all of this.”

In a related development, local drag artists and their supporters gathered for a march from Washington Circle to the Kennedy Center on Saturday to protest the Trump-Vance administration’s anti-transgender policies and the decisions made by the Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board of trustees. The March for Drag began with a rally at Washington Circle near George Washington University.

The U.S. House on March 11 voted to approve a Republican proposed budget reconciliation bill to prevent a federal government shutdown that breaks from past practices by declaring D.C. a federal agency and calling for a $1.1 billion cut in the city’s current budget.

The approval of the bill, with all but one Republican House member voting for it and all but one Democrat voting against it, came one day after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and nearly all members of the D.C. Council held a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol urging House members to remove the provision calling for the $1.1 billion D.C. budget cut.  

Bowser called the provision a “$1 billion mistake.”

She said the unexpected drastic budget cut would force the city to make dramatic cuts in funding for the police department, the city’s public schools and teacher salaries, along with “some of the basic government services that allow us to keep our city clean, safe, and beautiful.”

The approval of the House bill also came a little over a week after the D.C. chief financial officer disclosed city projections that due to the massive federal worker layoffs by the Trump administration, D.C. will be hit by a $343 million drop in revenue each year for the next three years.

This will likely require the city to make large scale cuts in the city’s budget that could impact a wide range of city programs, including programs impacting the LGBTQ community, according to city observers.

Japer Bowles, director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, which arranges for several million in city grants to be used to help fund local LGBTQ community service organizations, did not immediately respond to a question from the Washington Blade asking if the U.S. House required budget cuts, if finalized by the Senate, would result in large cuts in LGBTQ program funding.   

Howard Garrett, president of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, D.C.’s largest local LGBTQ political group, said the budget cuts called for in the House bill would have a serious impact on the LGBTQ community.

“Slashing D.C.’s budget isn’t just a political maneuver—it’s a direct threat to the health and safety of LGBTQ+ residents,” he told the Blade in a statement. “Critical services like Whitman-Walker Health, housing support, and HIV prevention programs rely on city funding,” he said.

“Cutting these resources disproportionately harms marginalized communities, making D.C. less safe and less inclusive,” Garrett said. “Our city should have the power to fund the services our residents depend on—not be at the mercy of Congress.”

Among the D.C. organizations providing services to the LGBTQ community that could lose funding if the D.C. budget cut is approved by the Senate are the Wanda Alston Foundation and SMYAL, which provide housing and other services for LGBTQ youth.  

To prevent a federal government shutdown, the Senate must approve some form of a budget reconciliation bill by Friday, March 14. D.C. officials were urging senators to amend the bill approved by the House to add a provision exempting D.C. from being treated as a federal agency and allowing the city’s fiscal year 2025 budget to continue without cuts.

It couldn’t immediately be determined if Senate Democrats, who are in the minority, would invoke a filibuster to kill the bill in its current form.

Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who supports the House bill, have said Democrats would be responsible for the harm that takes place from a government shutdown if they succeed in killing the budget reconciliation bill. 

In response to a question from the Blade asking if the House imposed  D.C. budget cut would result in cuts in city funding for LGBTQ programs, the mayor’s office released this statement:

“DC’s FY25 local budget was proposed by the Mayor, approved by the Council, and approved by Congress last year. In each previous continuing resolution for FY25, Congress authorized DC to spend at the already approved budgeted FY25 level. We are now six months into the fiscal year. We’re reminding them that the vast majority of the DC budget is DC taxpayer dollars, not federal funds.”