RFK Sta­di­um deal could be includ­ed in con­tin­u­ing res­o­lu­tion: Report

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RFK Stadium deal could be included in continuing resolution: Report

The deal for Wash­ing­ton, D.C., to get con­trol of the land where the for­mer RFK Sta­di­um sits has crawled through Con­gress but could make it off Capi­tol Hill before the cur­rent Con­gress ends through an uncon­ven­tion­al addi­tion to essen­tial leg­is­la­tion.

A report from Punch­bowl News on Wednes­day said the leg­is­la­tion to hand over con­trol of the land to the D.C. local gov­ern­ment could be includ­ed in a con­tin­u­ing res­o­lu­tion to fund the gov­ern­ment, which law­mak­ers must pass by Dec. 20 to avoid a gov­ern­ment shut­down. D.C. wants the land to lure the Wash­ing­ton Com­man­ders to build a new sta­di­um in the dis­trict.

“There’s a good pos­si­bil­i­ty,” House Speak­er Mike John­son (R‑LA) said, accord­ing to the out­let. “It seems like a good idea to me.”

D.C. is con­sid­ered the favorite to land the new Com­man­ders sta­di­um over Mary­land and Vir­ginia, but both the city and the team have said not get­ting con­trol over the RFK sta­di­um land would sig­nif­i­cant­ly hurt the capital’s chances of get­ting the sta­di­um.

The D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memo­r­i­al Sta­di­um Cam­pus Revi­tal­iza­tion Act would force the Gen­er­al Ser­vices Admin­is­tra­tion to enter a lease with the city of Wash­ing­ton for the land, allow­ing them to rede­vel­op the area into a new foot­ball sta­di­um, com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial devel­op­ments, or recre­ation­al facil­i­ties.

The Wash­ing­ton Com­man­ders mas­cot pic­tured before an NFL foot­ball game against the Mia­mi Dol­phins, Dec. 3, 2023, in Lan­dover, Mary­land. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.)

It passed a 348–55 in the House in Feb­ru­ary and was approved out of com­mit­tee in the Sen­ate last month after months of stalling as Sen. Steve Daines (R‑MT) expressed a desire for the team to hon­or the lega­cy of Wal­ter “Black­ie” Weitzel. Weitzel was the mod­el for the team’s for­mer logo when they were known as the Wash­ing­ton Red­skins, a name and logo that were ditched by the team in 2020. Daines said he was “sat­is­fied” with nego­ti­a­tions with the team to hon­or Weitzel and vot­ed in favor of the bill.

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The bill needs to be passed in the Sen­ate before the cur­rent con­gres­sion­al ses­sion ends, oth­er­wise it will have to be rein­tro­duced and start the process over in the Con­gress, which gets sworn in next month. NFL Com­mis­sion­er Roger Good­ell and Com­man­ders own­er Josh Har­ris were both on Capi­tol Hill ear­li­er this week, accord­ing to reports.

Law­mak­ers from Vir­ginia and Mary­land have large­ly opposed the leg­is­la­tion, hop­ing to have the sta­di­um in their states. How­ev­er, a report from the Wash­ing­ton Post on Tues­day sug­gest­ed that Maryland’s sen­a­tors would allow the move if they could have one of D.C.’s Nation­al Guard squadrons.