The Opportunity DC Newsletter: The Opportunities of a New Year in DC

In this edition:

• Opportunity DC's 2025 Policy Agenda Overview

• Reviewing 2024 Impact

• Ward 8 Council Expulsion

The bunting and staging are coming down from a Pennsylvania Avenue parade that never happened. Federal workers are being called back to the office. And the Mayor and a new Council are contending with a not-so-new President who was supported by only 6% of their constituents.

It’s a new year in DC, a new era in the White House, and a moment for all of us to recommit to making the District of Columbia a world-class example of shared prosperity and effective local governance.

Opportunity DC 2025 Agenda Overview

Opportunity DC’s 2025 policy agenda will focus on growing our economy and reducing costs for residents. This year, we will continue pushing back against bureaucratic barriers that stifle job creation, small business development, and housing construction. We will prioritize solutions that make life’s essentials – housing, goods, and services – more accessible for all District residents. In the coming months, we will release our full policy agenda. Until then, here’s a preview:

• Build More Housing to Bring Down Rents: There’s an obvious solution to DC’s out-of-control cost of living: build more housing. Making it easier to build housing will produce more available units, drive down housing costs for all residents, and sustainably provide more affordable housing.

• Unleash Economic Growth and Innovation: A resilient economy is diverse, where small business owners, large employers, and individual entrepreneurs can all succeed. Let’s break down the barriers to entrepreneurship so that more DC residents can start and sustain businesses, access good-paying jobs, and afford to buy basic goods and services

• Make Government Efficient and Effective: DC residents just want a government that works — that can enforce the laws, provide essential services, operate efficiently, and get big things done. We support streamlining, modernizing, and removing regulations that slow down progress and drive up costs for residents.

Marking Our 2024 Impact

Opportunity DC supporters gathered in December to celebrate what we achieved together in 2024 and look ahead to this new year. We were honored to have Councilmembers Brooke Pinto (Ward 2) and Wendell Felder (Ward 7) join us for a discussion.

With your input and partnership, last year we made significant strides to make DC an even better place to live, work, and play.

• Public Safety: Our advocacy campaign played a key role in the Council’s unanimous passage of the Secure DC legislation, a package with more than 100 interventions to prosecute and prevent crime in our communities. What a difference a year makes – violent crime was down 35% in 2024 compared to ’23. We want to see that progress continue in 2025.

• Economic Development: Opportunity DC helped secure over $200 million to revitalize downtown. We also protected funding for business licensing reform – a need that entrepreneurs have long wanted District government to address. There’s much more to do to improve our city’s business climate.

• Housing: We helped rally support from small housing providers for emergency legislation to normalize the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and stand up for rent-paying tenants who depend on affordable housing to live and work in the District. We’ll continue advocating for making these ERAP fixes permanent.

• Elections & Candidate Pipeline: All three of our campaign arm’s endorsed Council candidates won their elections. We’re preparing candidates who support policies to move our city forward for future elections.

Ward 8 Councilmember Expulsion Vote

Last year, the Council’s ad-hoc committee unanimously recommended expelling Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White for his conduct in an alleged bribery case. Yesterday, the Council held a hearing to consider this matter further. On February 4th, the Council will vote on whether or not to expel Councilmember White. 11 Councilmembers are required to vote affirmatively for expulsion to remove a sitting Councilmember. If the Council removes Councilmember Trayon White, the Board of Elections will schedule a special election this summer to fill the remainder of his Council term.

We appreciate your continued partnership and wish you a prosperous, peaceful new year.

Malcom Fox,

Executive Director