President Joe Biden on Monday signed into law a bill that transfers the land that includes the old RFK Stadium from the federal government to city control, the next step to potentially pave the way for the NFL's Washington Commanders to return to the nation's capital.
Giving the District of Columbia control of the land for the next 99 years allows for the decaying husk of the old stadium to be torn down and the site redeveloped for any number of things. One of the possibilities is a football stadium and surrounding entertainment options at the franchise’s former home.
Owners Josh Harris, Mitch Rales and Mark Ein and Mayor Muriel Bowser stood behind Biden at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office when he signed the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act. The Commanders in a statement said it was a big win for the city and its residents.
“Washington can finally move forward on a new vision for the RFK site,” they said. “We look forward to being a part of that conversation as we evaluate a future home for the Washington Commanders.”
Bowser called this moment “the results of years of tireless and strategic advocacy, extraordinary collaboration and bipartisan leadership.”
“It is a good day for D.C. when we finally have control of our own destiny at the RFK campus,” Bowser said. “We are ready and optimistic about unlocking the full potential of this space, and with more than 170 acres of land we can do it all — deliver housing, economic opportunity, green space, recreation, sports and more.”
The resolution made it through Congress in the early-morning hours of Dec. 21 just before the holiday recess after it was removed from the year-end spending bill in a twist that threatened the efforts by Bowser and others made over the last 18 months. Controlling owner Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill in early December in support of the measure.
Playing in Washington again is no sure thing. The Commanders are also considering other places in the district, Maryland and Virginia to build a stadium in the coming years.
Their lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, runs through 2027. Harris called 2030 a “reasonable target” for a new stadium.
The team played at RFK Stadium, 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) east of the Capitol, from 1961-96 before moving to Maryland. Harris and several co-owners, including Rales and Ein, grew up as Washington football fans during that era, which included the glory days of three Super Bowl championships from 1982-91.
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FILE - RFK Stadium is visible from Air Force One as it takes off from Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Nov. 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Jimmy Carter will continue to lie in state Wednesday after his remains arrived in Washington a day earlier as part of state funeral rites.
The Georgia Democrat and 39th president died Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
Carter served as president from 1977-81, winning office as an outsider in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate. He endured a rocky four years of economic unrest and international crises that ended with his defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. But he also lived long enough to see historians reassess his presidency more charitably than voters did in 1980.
He was remembered Tuesday at the Capitol for his deep religious faith, long public service and decades of humanitarian work beyond what he accomplished in politics.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Mike Johnson were among those who offered bipartisan tributes to Carter in the Capitol Rotunda, where his flag-draped casket remains atop the Lincoln catafalque for members of the public to pay their respects.
Carter will remain at the Capitol until Thursday morning, when he is transported to Washington National Cathedral for a state funeral. President Joe Biden, a longtime Carter ally, will deliver a eulogy. Other living former presidents, including President-elect Donald Trump, are expected to attend.
After the funeral, the Boeing 747 that is Air Force One when a sitting president is aboard will carry Carter and his family back to Georgia. An invitation-only funeral will be held at Maranatha Baptist Church in tiny Plains, where Carter taught Sunday School for decades after leaving office.
Carter will be buried next to his wife, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, in a plot near the home they built before his first state Senate campaign in 1962 and where they lived out their lives with the exception of four years in the Georgia Governor's Mansion and four years in the White House.
The flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter is transferred to a horse-drawn caisson at the U.S. Navy Memorial before traveling on to the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, where Carter will lie in state. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
The flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter lies in state during a ceremony in the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP)
The flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter lies in state at the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/Pool via AP)
A joint services military body bearer team carries the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter up the steps into the U.S Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool via AP)
The Carter family pay their respects during a ceremony as the flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter lies in state, at the Capitol, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Washington. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (Kent Nishimura/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
