Eric Flack gives G&D the latest on the RFK bill being attached to a spending bill whose passage is 'a formality'
As of this afternoon, the bill that would return control of the land RFK Stadium sits on to the District of Columbia was still planned to be attached to a larger spending bill set to be passed through the Senate perhaps before the end of the week.
So, just after 3 p.m., Grant & Danny had WUSA investigative reporter Eric Flack, who has been all over the RFK bill’s trials and tribulations, on to lay out the latest news.
“As of now, it is in fact included in this spending bill, which means DC is really closing in now, in the final stages of a full-fledged push to get the Commanders back to the District,” Flack said. “Still never official until it's official, but it was a huge hurdle to actually get that RFK bill giving DC long term control of the land into that spending bill. Things change up on Capitol Hill, but once they agree on that larger spending bill, which really doesn't have much to do with RFK at all and passage is a formality, the debate is over, and it is, for all intents and purposes, a reality that DC has long-term control of that RFK land.”
One of Flack’s sources had told him Wednesday that they were ’70 percent’ confident this would happen, and things were ‘moving in the right direction’ – so we’re at celebration time, even if the text of the bill won’t be finalized until the weekend, and the vote will come after that, but it’s all a formality.
“We’ve still got some time, and I’m sure you’ve seen reports on back-door negotiations with Maryland, so there’s always a chance things could go sideways,” Flack said, “but it’s a lot longer putt to get the RFK bill into that resolution, and pulling it out seems much more unlikely; once it's in there, you're moving in the right direction, so I think everybody on the side who wants this bill to pass is feeling really good right now. As of now, things are trending in the right direction, and it is included in this larger spending bill.”
So that would mean the land is DC’s to develop – what next for a potential Commanders return?
“Then DC has to cut the deal with the Commanders, and we don’t know there; you can read the room, and see Mayor Bowser up in the suite at the Titans game with Josh Harris, but they would have to approve money just like they did for Capital One,” Flack said. “So, DC city council will have to get involved at some point and they will have to produce the agreement of here is how much DC is expected to pay, so we have a whole lot of steps before we are breaking ground at RFK. The biggest challenge was always going to be that DC didn't even have the right to make the deal because they didn't control the land past 2037, but now they do, and they have the right to lease it out for whatever they want, and now you’re at the point to negotiate with the Commanders and say here’s what we’re in with, what are you comfortable with?”
And that part, it seems, is the biggest part of why Maryland, which stands to lose the Commanders of course, was trying to block things, at least unless they had a couple of conditions met.
“Part of the Maryland contingent’s argument was that federal taxpayers were giving DC basically a bargaining chip with the Commanders; we’re just giving them this federal land. which they are then going to turn around and give to the Commanders for free to build the stadium there, which we don't know for sure, but is fairly likely,” Flack said. “The agreement between the Commanders and DC still has to be formalized, but have talks happened behind closed doors that we don't know about? It’d be hard not to think that they haven’t exchanged a couple of numbers, but again, we don't know any of that for sure. Maryland had a couple of big conditions, and there was a lot of smoke and mirrors about fighter jets, which may or may not be part of this, but the two huge conditions were the future of the Northwest Stadium site, and one that developed later on was the Senators negotiating for huge amounts of disaster relief money to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge – they want billions to rebuild it, and that became part of the discussion at the eleventh hour.”
Nothing has been formally released on the stadium site condition, although Flack thinks it’s safe to say that has been assuaged to get to this point, but what about the bridge money?
“That became the sticking point, like, we're not gonna be cool with the RFK thing if we don't get the money that we want to build the bridge; seemingly completely unrelated, but that's the way Capitol Hill works,” Flack said. “At this point we're hearing the RFK bill is in this spending bill, so you have to believe that Maryland is satisfied with the amount of money that they're looking to get out of this bridge, and got what it needed to make this palatable moving forward.”
