Washington, D.C., Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee is holding up Mayor Muriel Bowser’s budget by asserting that a reserve fund must be replenished as part of it.

Bowser’s budget was supposed to come out Wednesday, but Lee held it up at the last minute. Though there is nothing in Washington, D.C., law that requires the reserve fund, a savings account for the government, to be refilled, Lee is using his authority to insist as much.

Despite the lack of a law requiring the filling of the reserve fund, Lee argued that he has “the authority and responsibility to evaluate all aspects of the budget.”

Lee is seeking to cut out $250 million to replenish the account, according to Axios, a significant amount of the city’s struggling finances.

The move enraged D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who floated firing the CFO.

“Think of it,” he said in a statement. “Next year he could cancel other programs or maybe insist on firing agency directors because they mismanage their budgets.”

Bowser is likely to get the total by taking from the Pay Equity Fund, which subsidizes the salaries of child care providers. To cut from the fund would set up a fight with progressive Democrats.

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“The Pay Equity Fund is essential: it has raised wages for thousands of hard working early childhood educators, many of whom are Black and Brown women,” D.C. Councilwoman Brianne Nadeau said. “We must keep our promises to the District’s educators, parents, and children and protect this program in our FY25 budget.”

When asked if this demand is outside Lee’s purview, Bowser told reporters, “Well, that’s a question for another day.”