DC Council overrides Mayor Bowser's veto on Circulator worker protection bill

WASHINGTON — D.C’s council is passing its Circulator worker protection bill, despite Mayor Muriel Bowser’s veto.

The D.C. Circulator Transition Emergency Amendment Act of 2024, unanimously passed by the council on Oct. 8, will allocate money from selling Circulator assets for a fund supporting employees laid off when the Circulator shuts down.

Though Bowser vetoed the bill on Oct. 23, the council overrode the veto on Oct. 29.

District Department of Transportation announced it would be phasing out and shutting down its bus line, the Circulator, by the end of the year on July 29. That day, hundreds of employees received permanent layoff notices.

Bus line began being phased out Oct. 1, with plans to fully phase out all bus lines by Dec. 31.

Drivers told WUSA9 they were blindsided by the decision to shut down. Just months earlier, contract negotiations ended with drivers being told they would have at least five more years of work. And though drivers say they were told they could transition to Metro, they have had to apply as new hires — losing seniority and taking pay cuts.

Councilmember Charles Allen of Ward 6, the chair of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment, released a statement on overriding the veto. 

“There was no realistic way for the Council to reverse the Mayor’s shutdown of the DC Circulator in the budget, but we did take steps to better care for the bus drivers, mechanics, and other employees being laid off. The Circulator is being closed faster than needed, and that means workers have months less time to find their next job. Some who served for close to two decades are getting three weeks of severance. Mind you, these are the same workers we were hailing as heroes during the pandemic when they showed up to work and kept the buses running. Our emergency bill, which was vetoed by the Mayor, is an effort to make sure we do right by these workers in this difficult transition. Again, these are people who have dedicated their careers to District residents and to their riders. It is vexing we had to override a veto for something as simple as trying to support dedicated employees at a challenging time in their careers – especially when the original vote was unanimous.”