Inside the RFK bill stunner: Fighter jets and a promise to a D.C. nemesis. (WaPo)

The late Senator Eugene J. McCarthy (D-Minn.) said, "Politics is a lot like coaching football. You have to be smart enough to know the rules, but dumb enough to think it's important." From The Washington Post: 

Inside the RFK bill stunner: Fighter jets and a promise to a D.C. nemesis

One by one, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and her allies tackled objections from the bill’s chief opponents to carve out a last-minute path to a win in the Senate.

December 25, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. ESTToday at 6:00 a.m. EST

13 min

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser speaks at an event Monday after the U.S. Senate passed the RFK Stadium legislation. (Valerie Plesch for The Washington Post) 

By Meagan Flynn

, 

Erin Cox

 and 

Sam Fortier

It was 1 a.m. Saturday, and D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser was sitting at the foot of her bed glued to C-SPAN, waiting to see whether the U.S. Senate would deliver the city one of its greatest economic development opportunities this generation in the final hours of the congressional session.

Earlier that evening, all hope appeared lost that Congress would pass the RFK bill, allowing D.C. to redevelop the land surrounding the defunct RFK football stadium, possibly into a new home for the Washington Commanders.

But hope was not lost for Bowser (D), team executives and the city’s allies in Congress. On Friday night, they launched a feverish, long-shot bid to push the bill through the Senate under unanimous consent, a procedure that would require all senators present to agree to let it pass.

One by one, Bowser and her allies tackled objections from the bill’s chief opponents to carve out a last-minute path to success in the Senate, communicating with everyone from a D.C. home-rule nemesis to Maryland senators and the secretary of the Air Force, according to interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the negotiations or with direct knowledge of them, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

While Maryland pursued a transfer of National Guard fighter jets from D.C., the city made a promise to another chief opponent, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), as things came down to the wire: If a stadium were built, the city would kick in funds to spruce up National Park Service land in the city, according to Bowser officials.

At 1:15 a.m. Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) called up the RFK bill — which would allow D.C. to bring retail, housing, recreation and, also, a potential new stadium to the site, an elusive long-term economic development goal Bowser had been pursuing for a decade.

With no objections heard in the chamber, now she had it.

“I’ve been in D.C. for over 20 years. I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said one senior congressional aide involved with the legislation.

Bowser said in an interview that the surprise finish for RFK was more than the result of a final flurry of calls.

“We just kept pushing until we knew we had a way to get to the floor. We didn’t stop,” she said. “The unanimous consent that we achieved was building on weeks and weeks, months and months of work.”

A path to the Senate floor

After multiple failed attempts to pass various forms of the RFK bill in the past, the Commanders, the city and members of Congress had been negotiating for months over what it would take to get RFK legislation done this time.

Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee who introduced the bill, had made significant strides swaying fellow GOP lawmakers and House leadership to back the legislation, seeing it as a boon for economic prosperity in the nation’s capital. Comer had agreed to lead the bill in July 2023 after a pitch from Bowser.

“They hit it off,” a senior congressional aide familiar with their meeting said.

Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) saw the RFK Stadium legislation as a boost for economic prosperity in the District. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

That partnership with the mayor — as well as with D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), who co-sponsored — led to broad bipartisan support for the bill, which passed the House by a wide margin in February.

But the main challenge was always going to be in the Senate. The Maryland Democrats, typically D.C.’s allies, were in a tough position: They did not want the Commanders to abandon their existing stadium in Landover in favor of waterfront property in D.C., which the RFK bill would allow the District to control for 99 years at no cost. Would Landover become the site of the region’s next rusting, empty stadium? Unanimous consent in the Senate seemed like a nonstarter.

In December, as options to get RFK through the Senate started to narrow, Maryland’s leverage in the matter grew. State leaders, including Gov. Wes Moore (D), wanted three things before Congress passed the RFK bill and adjourned: assurances from the Commanders that their Landover stadium would be redeveloped if the team were to depart for D.C.; full federal funding to rebuild the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore; and control of an elite fighter jet squadron within the D.C. Air National Guard, as Maryland was set to lose its own flying mission.

With the clock winding down, the Maryland and D.C. priorities became enmeshed in the same negotiations.

“It really was three different plotlines that, in the end, got twisted together,” said one person close to the saga. “This was never meant to be a swap.”

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Bowser and Cardin met in person for the first time in Cardin’s office on the Hill in early December, just after Maryland’s pursuit of the fighter jets became front-page news. Bowser came to discuss the RFK bill. Nearing the end of the line, Bowser was going to need Cardin: In meetings with the NFL, Commanders and Maryland senators, Schumer had made clear Maryland’s support was vital: He would not move the RFK bill unless everyone reached a deal.

Within a matter of weeks, they struck one. The Commanders promised in writing to redevelop the Landover site if they left. And congressional leadership released a bipartisan spending bill that managed to give everyone what they wanted: the bridge funding and the jets for Maryland, the valuable riverfront federal property for D.C., and for the NFL, a chance to consider building an urban sports entertainment destination with the U.S. Capitol in the skyline.

But that version of the spending bill survived for less than 24 hours. President-elect Donald Trump demanded it be scrapped, and Elon Musk went on a tirade about the bill on X, including spreading false information about the RFK legislation. While the bridge funding remained, RFK Stadium and the fighter jets transfer were scrapped from the final bill that passed early Friday evening, along with many other provisions.

Elon Musk, left, and President-elect Donald Trump came out against the version of the spending bill that contained the RFK provision, leading it to be bumped from the legislation. (Alex Brandon/AP)

It was time for the city and bill supporters to launch a last-minute Plan B: seeking unanimous consent.

That route was only possible in the Senate because the RFK Stadium bill had passed the House; it had also cleared a Senate committee with broad bipartisan support, fueling its momentum. But that vote was not unanimous. And as the term “unanimous consent” implies, just one naysayer would be enough to kill it.

“We had a very high bar there, because we could not have a single objection,” Bowser said.

Bowser and her team, as well as the Commanders and the NFL, began to eye the final holdouts: How could they get the remaining opponents to stand down?

“We knew we had to go door to door,” a person familiar with the effort said, and because they’d done the legwork — two years of lobbying, including multiple hearings and committee votes — they knew which doors they needed to knock on.

The final hours

The list was manageable, but they had to move fast.

To start, Maryland senators. Then, Lee, a longtime objector who wanted D.C. to pay fair market value for the RFK land. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) was a wild card; he’d objected for months on behalf of the Native American tribe he represents, a member of which is credited with designing the team’s former logo.

On Friday, the RFK bill’s allies began approaching Moore and the two Maryland senators about what it would take to get the deal done another way.

A side deal launched by the senators to re-secure the fighter jets transfer began coming together, with Schumer looped into the unfolding plan — one that would ultimately become critical to the RFK bill in the Senate, according to three people familiar with the negotiations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

On Friday afternoon, Cardin and Van Hollen together dialed Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall III, seeking assurances that the deal everyone had agreed to earlier in the week to move the fighter jets was still possible. They hit voicemail.

Maryland Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen, left, and Ben Cardin wanted to ensure the state wasn't left with an empty, rusting stadium if the Commanders vacated their Landover home. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Unlike governors, Bowser does not control D.C’s National Guard — top federal defense officials do. But Bowser did not object to the move.

Around 8 p.m., Van Hollen reached Kendall by phone, then looped in Cardin, Moore and Bowser by conference call to ensure they were still all on the same page: D.C. would give up the fighter jets. No one objected.

Shortly afterward, the senators let Schumer know they were satisfied: The Air Force would administratively transfer the fighter squadron to Maryland, according to three people familiar with the conversation.

RFK’s odds were improving — but still unclear, with Lee appearing to be the biggest remaining hurdle.

Comer was stuck at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport, trying to catch the last flight home to Kentucky, as the final push was unfolding, according to senior congressional aides. Just before takeoff about 8 p.m., he put in a call to Lee, trying to persuade him based on the federal taxpayer savings and economic prosperity arguments for the nation’s capital he had been pushing all along.

Bowser’s team was working on Lee, too.

Lee, the same senator who introduced a bill to repeal D.C.’s self-government, to abolish Bowser’s very office, was now standing in the way of one of Bowser’s biggest goals as mayor. Lee had named his anti-home rule bill after Bowser, in fact, calling it the BOWSER Act: Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident Act.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a nemesis of D.C., was seen as one of the biggest hurdles to passage of the RFK bill. (Graeme Sloan/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Bowser’s federal affairs staff had long been working with Lee’s office to try to get the senator to drop his objections. Lee wanted D.C. to pay. D.C. was not going to pay. Federal law, which treats D.C. differently because it is the federal district, allowed the city to take administrative control of the land at no cost. But now that things were down to the wire, Bowser’s team returned to Lee’s staff to try once again.

They returned to an idea floated with Lee’s staff in earlier conversations, according to Bowser officials: If D.C. built a sports stadium at the site, the city would agree to have the land under the stadium appraised. Based on the appraisal, D.C. would agree to make improvements worth an equivalent value to National Park Service land in the District. That could include making improvements to the land around the stadium; the bill requires 30 percent of the land be set aside for park space and recreation.

They had a deal, according to Bowser officials. (A spokesman for Lee did not respond to a request for comment.) The details must still be worked out as part of negotiations with the interior secretary over the terms of the land transfer.

With that major hurdle cleared, there was one last problem.

Daines had put a hold on the bill around 8:30 p.m. He had for months opposed the bill and called for the team to honor Walter “Blackie” Wetzel, the Native American man credited with designing the team’s old logo. In November, satisfied, Daines had voted for the bill in committee.

But on Friday night, Daines heard about the unanimous consent push and called Ryan Wetzel, the family’s leader. Wetzel told Daines he was “frustrated” with the team, according to a person with knowledge of the call.

Quickly, the Commanders assured Wetzel the team would provide “ongoing and everlasting” support for a future family foundation, Wetzel said in an interview, and within about 90 minutes, Daines withdrew his opposition.

At 9:36 p.m., all holds were lifted, according to an email shared with The Washington Post. And by 10:30 p.m., Schumer had an agreement to move forward with the government spending bill to avert a government shutdown — the major business of the night, which also included Maryland’s bridge funding.

Satisfied that all parties had come to an agreement, with just hours remaining in the last day of the congressional session, Schumer decided he would bring the RFK bill to the floor under unanimous consent.

“This deal will help revitalize communities in D.C. and Maryland, bringing new jobs and better opportunities for so many people, and it was imperative it get done the right way,” Schumer said in a statement to The Post.

Until the moment he brought it to the floor, the mayor, the team and the bill’s supporters couldn’t be certain what would happen. Some prayed. Some needed to see it to believe it, knowing that in the U.S. Capitol it was never over until it was over.

When Schumer read out the bill, and no senators objected, exhausted RFK bill supporters celebrated. One person, who was huddled in the conference room of a lobbying firm downtown, described the scene with one word: “Jubilation.”

Bowser smiles in her Commanders gear. (Valerie Plesch for The Washington Post) 

The negotiating feat, which unlocked more than 170 riverfront acres for redevelopment into housing, retail, restaurants and a potential new stadium, is likely to become a legacy achievement for Bowser should all go as planned and marks a stunning reversal of fortune for the city heading into 2025. A year ago this month, the mayor was ending 2023 with the prospect of losing the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Virginia — an outcome she also negotiated to prevent after she inked a $515 million deal to retain the teams at Capital One Arena when the Virginia arena foundered.

At RFK, a new football stadium is not guaranteed and is likely to face hurdles in the D.C. Council should it involve taxpayer money and concern among some neighbors nearest the RFK site, east of Capitol Hill.

On Monday, Bowser told reporters that for now, she hoped everyone could “take a beat, take a pause,” pledging that the city would “only advance to the council a plan that is good for Washington, D.C.” She said she spoke with Commanders principal owner Josh Harris on Sunday. “They have been side by side with us in how he, first of all, can focus on bringing a winning team, and how we made it very clear to them that we want the team to come home,” she said, wearing a Washington Commanders beanie and matching burgundy pants.

“I’ve been wearing this hat for a few weeks,” she said. Will she take it off?

“I may not,” she said, laughing. “I just believe that momentum is a powerful force in the universe.”

Nicki Jhabvala, Jenny Gathright and Paul Kane contributed to this report.

By Meagan Flynn

Meagan Flynn covers D.C. government and politics on The Post's Metro team.follow on X@Meagan_Flynn

By Erin Cox

Erin Cox is a politics reporter covering Maryland. She joined The Washington Post in 2018 and has written about Maryland since 2007.follow on X@ErinatThePost

By Sam Fortier

Sam Fortier is a beat writer for The Post covering Washington's NFL team.follow on X@Sam4TR

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