Council Limits Rent Increases, Requires Insurance Companies to Cover Fertility Treatments

Passing legislation in the District of Columbia takes time. That time is unnaturally extended by the Home Rule Act requirement that all DC laws must undergo a review period of 30 Congressional legislative days (which can often stretch across weeks and months) before going into effect. Excepted from this poky process is what is known as “emergency legislation,” which is limited in three important ways: it requires a two-thirds vote of the Council, it is only in effect for ninety days, and it can incur no additional cost that the government cannot otherwise absorb.

At the Council’s latest Legislative Meeting, action was taken to limit the percentage by which rents can increase in rent-controlled apartments in the District. But this action could have been taken in early April, rather than in June, if it were not for a determination by the administration that the cost of implementing the limit (a partial staff cost thought to be in the low five figures) could not be absorbed by the Department of Housing and Community Development. Two pieces of emergency legislation that would have limited the rent increase back at our April legislative meeting were essentially scotched by the determination that their implementation could not be absorbed by the agency. With rent increases scheduled to kick in on May 1, this April timing would have been essential, and was a missed opportunity that was denied to us.

If these bills were out of order in April, why were they allowable, and passed unanimously, at our most recent meeting? Simply because, in the interim, the Council passed the District’s budget, including the spending of supplemental revenues collected during the ongoing fiscal year, and explicitly set aside funds for the implementation of the new rent control limit measure. The implementation costs no longer needed to be absorbed, because they were directly budgeted.

The District’s rent control law limits annual rent hikes to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus two percent, up to a maximum ten percent bump. For seniors and people with disabilities, the increase is limited to the lesser of three numbers: five percent, the CPI, or the Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment. The percentage increase for the upcoming year had been pegged at 8.9 percent (5 percent for seniors/people with disabilities), which was the highest increase on record. In the end, the emergency bill the Council was finally able to pass caps single-year increases to 6 percent (4 percent for seniors/people with disabilities), and 12 percent across two years (8 percent for seniors/people with disabilities), effective July 1.

The two-year cap was a critical element of the bill, since it provides protection even for those tenants whose rents increased during the window when the Council’s hands were tied and we were unable to pass emergency legislation. For anyone whose rent went up the maximum allowable 8.9 percent during that time, because of the 12 percent two-year cap, the rent bump they will face next year will not be able to exceed 3.1 percent.

Passed as part of the consent agenda at the most recent meeting was a bill that would require all health insurers (including Medicaid and the DC Healthcare Alliance) to cover all fertility diagnosis and medication for those attempting to conceive, including through surrogacy. Additionally, private insurers would be required to cover in vitro fertilization. The effective dates for the bill are January 1, 2024 for Medicaid and Alliance recipients, and January 1, 2025 for those with private insurance. While funds were included in the recently-passed budget to fund elements of this bill, the included funding was not sufficient to fund it fully.

The Council will hold a Legislative Meeting on June 13, at which the second vote on the Budget Support Act (and final vote of this year’s budget cycle) will be taken. Legislative Meetings will also be held on June 20 and July 11.