Blog: Budget role — The Lab @ DC

June 18, 2025

By: Amelie Hecht, Katie O’Connell & Sam Quinney

*A Lab staff member (left) and Mayor Muriel Bowser (middle) with District residents at a Budget Engagement Forum. Photo Credit:* *@MayorBowser, 2024.*

DC Government makes tough choices every budget season. The FY26 Budget: Grow DC, which Mayor Bowser released last month is certainly no exception given everything affecting our revenue and spending. The budget is the most significant policy document the District creates each year; as Budget Director Jenny Reed often says, it’s a direct statement of our values as a government. What programs should stay, grow or be cut? And in what new areas do we want to invest?

The Lab @ DC plays an important supporting role in the District’s budget. During budget season, we provide input on whether proposed new programs are likely to benefit the District, based on what we know from research evidence. We use our program evaluation expertise to review all proposals for new funding to help decision-makers prioritize programs that will work, while still leaving room for innovative, emerging ideas that meet the needs of a dynamic city like DC. Outside of budget season, we prioritize analyses that can feed results back into the next budget formulation process – and we have a particularly exciting example in the Mayor’s proposed budget.

First, a bit of background on DC’s budget

From September through March each year, the Mayor’s Office works with agencies to formulate a balanced budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1. The final proposed budget gets passed from the Mayor to DC Council each spring (that is, when the US Congress doesn’t throw a wrench into the process). The DC Council, our legislative branch, can make changes but they must ensure the final budget is balanced. Once DC Council passes the budget, the Mayor reviews and signs it into law, and programs can be implemented at the start of the new fiscal year.

The budget cycle includes work and input from The Lab @ DC. We focus on using evaluations and evidence to inform spending decisions (red).

A good budget needs to be many things: balanced, fair, meticulous and data-driven, while still allowing room for flexibility and innovation. Spending money on programs supported by evidence gives us more confidence that our investments will achieve their goals. We know that the best evidence comes from studies that use rigorous research designs from right here in DC. That said, the District sometimes takes a chance on funding an innovative idea that doesn’t have much supporting data yet. For example, in 2017, the District invested in a pilot program to add nurses to the 911 call center that had only been tried in one other city and not rigorously evaluated.

Keeping score

Since 2017, The Lab has provided input on all new budget proposals submitted by agencies. We share an “evidence score” with decision-makers, which describes whether a proposed program or service is supported by none, some, moderate, or strong research. To determine that score, we ask agencies to cite research studies conducted in DC or in other jurisdictions in their budget submissions. Our team then considers the studies’ methods, findings, and how similar the program studied is to the proposed program.

This standardized evidence rating process was developed using resources such as the What Works Clearinghouse’s evidence tiers and the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. For example, only the highest quality evidence from a rigorous randomized evaluation can result in a “strong” evidence rating. On the other hand, if the only evidence supporting a new program comes from less rigorous before-and-after studies, that proposal would receive a “some” rating. Sometimes, we will reach out to agencies to suggest tweaks to their proposal to make it more aligned with evidence.

“Spending money on programs supported by evidence gives us more confidence that our investments will achieve their goals.”

The most compelling evidence for decision-makers comes from studies conducted on programs here in DC—for example, two years after DC piloted adding nurses to the 911 call center, The Lab’s evaluation findings were used as evidence in the budget process and helped solidify permanent funding for the program.

Over the years, we’ve learned that not every budget proposal is a good fit for receiving an evidence score. For example, paying a legal settlement or adjusting for the increased price of concrete were exempt from our rating since that spending is more like an obligation than a new way of doing things.

Collaboration is key

The Budget Director, City Administrator, and Mayor review The Lab’s evidence scores as they make crucial decisions about what to fund. Our scores are shared alongside ratings from our colleagues in the OCA Performance Management Team, who assess the agencies’ implementation and performance plans, and the Office of Racial Equity, who consider the programs’ impact on racial equity. Incorporating multiple perspectives enables decision-makers to get a wholistic sense for each proposal. The Lab also joins meetings with agency staff, the District’s budget team, the City Administrator, and others to ask questions, analyze trends in past spending, and suggest how the next budget can meet the needs of residents.

Residents can also shape priorities during the budget development stage. Residents are invited to provide input at the Mayor’s Budget Engagement Forums, which The Lab assists with each year. In recent years, we’ve seen public priorities—from student safety to pickleball—influence real spending decisions.

Playing (data-driven) favorites…

While we generally advocate (or as we like to say, “Labvocate”) for the budget requests with higher evidence ratings, we find that some proposals stand out for other reasons beyond the existing evidence. It might be that they include a creative or innovative approach or come from an agency that has a track record of putting data and evidence to good use. It might be a program that closely fits residents’ needs or something that could be co-designed with residents, targeted through a predictive model, or tested through a rigorous evaluation. In these instances, we’ll often do extra work to support those requests and advocate for them. More often than not, we find that these items make it through to the final budget—even in tight financial conditions.

This year, we’re excited the budget features a great example of evidence-based budgeting. DC plans to invest in approximately 460 new spots for the DC Flexible Rent Subsidy program (DC Flex)—an innovative rental subsidy that gives families more autonomy and has demonstrated strong and cost-effective results in preventing the need for other homelessness services.

After years of partnering with the DC Department of Human Services (DHS) to stand-up and evaluate DC Flex—we conducted new analyses to inform this budget and demonstrated that DC Flex can help people remain independent after exiting from a short-term housing program. If approved by the DC Council, qualifying families could enroll in DC Flex for up to 5 years of support. Stay tuned to our newsletter for the results that supported this proposal.

DC Flex is just the latest example of how the District uses evidence to strengthen its services and programs, from discounted transit to student internships. Though evidence is just one factor among many that influence our budget, every year, we learn something new and get excited by the chance to use our skills and knowledge to make government work better for residents.

Curious about projects that shaped—or were shaped by—DC’s budget process? Check out: