Washington, D.C
Lawmakers want the Washington Commanders to play in DC, but Maryland and Virginia also are interested
The regional debate over the location of the Washington Commanders‘ next home is intensifying after the NFL team’s first season under new ownership, with Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia each seeking leverage in their bids.
In Washington, D.C., Congress is looking to help the local government draw the football team back to the district for the first time since 1996, when it moved to FedEx Field in Maryland. Considered one of the worst stadiums in the NFL, owner Josh Harris began looking for a new home for his team soon after his purchase of the team was ratified in July 2023. Part of his search includes rebuilding relationships previous owner Dan Snyder burned over the years in the DMV area.
Each jurisdiction could appeal in different ways to Harris, with Washington, D.C., having boosters in Congress. A measure to overhaul the team’s old home area, in a stadium area blocks from Capitol Hill, the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act, came under consideration in a “bipartisan fashion” by the House Oversight Committee in mid-January. That after being stalled since September of last year, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told the Washington Examiner.
The legislation was first introduced in July last year by an unlikely pair: Comer, known for leading investigations of wayward presidential son Hunter Biden, and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). That happened the same month Harris’s purchase was ratified.
The proposal would require the federal government to lease the RFK land to the D.C. government for 99 years, allowing them to redevelop the land as they choose. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a vocal advocate of the bill, has long had her eyes set on building a new stadium in that area to bring the Commanders home to the district.
The measure last took a markup vote on Sept. 20, 2023, advancing the bill to a full House vote, but it has been stalled since then. Comer said that, following “meaningful discussions” with Bowser and local stakeholders, “it became clear that revitalizing the vacant RFK stadium campus is a top economic priority for the nation’s capital.”
“Congress can help pave a path for local D.C. leaders to create meaningful new jobs, add millions in city revenue, and transform the city’s RFK waterfront site into a lively destination for all,” the Kentucky Republican said. “I remain dedicated to working in a bipartisan fashion and hopeful that we can move legislation as quickly as possible.”
However, Washington, D.C., has distinct disadvantages in the form of adversarial council members, defiant local residents, and the overall burden of a taxpayer-funded sports arena. And one of Mayor Bowser’s biggest blows gave Virginia an edge.
In December, the commonwealth declared victory after the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals announced plans to leave Washington, D.C., for a new sports arena in the Potomac Yard area. The pending moves suggest the district is unable to support national teams, a particularly harsh blow to Bowser’s image.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, said when announcing the deal that it was the culmination of “many years of dreaming” and would be good for the taxpayers in the commonwealth.
“Virginia has a tremendous opportunity to be the home to multiple professional sports teams. The Monumental announcement is a one-of-a-kind sports and entertainment district that will generate $12 billion of economic impact and create 30,000 jobs in Virginia,” Youngkin spokesman Christian Martinez said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Other organizations will have to decide on what they’re going to do but it should be a collaborative effort between our administration, our general assembly and the locality to make sure that it is a good deal for Virginia taxpayers.”
“Governor Youngkin believes Virginia is the best place to live, work, raise a family, and watch your favorite professional team win!” Martinez continued.
In October, Washington, D.C., residents in the Kingman Park area near the RFK Stadium delivered Bowser another major blow: a survey commissioned by the neighborhood’s civic association found two-thirds of the roughly 2,500 people polled opposed the idea of building a new stadium. A large majority of the respondents ranked a new stadium dead last after green space, housing, and playgrounds as options for revitalizing the area.
The top complaint among residents and D.C. council members has been the use of taxpayer funds to lure a team back to the district, bringing traffic, drunk fans, opportunities for crime, and rats along with it, according to Washington City Paper.
Bowser’s office declined to comment to the Washington Examiner about Congress revising the RFK Stadium bill or how bringing the Commanders back to Washington, D.C., could affect the district.
Some D.C. council members have argued that trying to keep the Wizards and Capitals from leaving the district is how D.C. tax dollars are best spent, rather than attempting to lure the Commanders back to a home area that they left nearly 30 years ago.
“I think that’s the responsible thing for us to do is to consider all of our options that are on the table,” Councilwoman Christina Henderson said in September. “But at the end of the day, again, it’s going to be about priorities. … We really have to focus on the teams that we currently have in the district and shoring up to make sure that they remain. The dollars and cents only go but so far.”
Maryland lawmakers seem to agree. Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), motivated by a desire to keep the Commanders in Maryland, had supported a provision from Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) that would block public funds for a new stadium under the RFK Stadium bill. The amendment failed to pass, but it did not ease the worries of those who believe the stadium will ultimately cost more than it’s worth.
Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) arguably has the most leverage and the most to lose. So far, Maryland is the only jurisdiction with an available site and the ability to provide public funding. Harris also owns the land where FedEx Field resides, so even though the lease ends in 2027, the team could stay indefinitely in a modern stadium if one is built. Moore spent the last few months engaging with the Commanders owners and attended four of the team’s games this past season, according to his staff.
“The Commanders have called Prince George’s County home for the last 25 years, and the governor is committed to continuing that longstanding partnership,” press secretary Carter Elliott said to the Washington Examiner.
Moore said in December that, though two D.C.-area sports teams are heading to Virginia, he is not worried about losing the third, the Commanders, to the commonwealth or anywhere else.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“I want the Commanders to stay in Maryland,” Moore said in December, also citing the expanding Metrorail line in Maryland. “We have already, as a state, allocated $400 million that’s going towards the Blue Line corridor because we believe in a larger development and creating the live, work, play environment.”
Moore, elected governor in 2022 and known as a big sports fan, added, “My eagerness and aggressiveness in trying to keep the Commanders here in the state of Maryland is not at all impacted by what we saw with the [Capitals] and the Wizards.”
Washington, D.C
The director of the Congressional Budget Office—known for its gloomy national debt data—is very optimistic that a crisis will be avoided entirely | Fortune
Dr Phillip Swagel is an optimist, both by nature and when he looks at the U.S. economy.
This fact is perhaps at odds with what one might assume: Swagel is the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan agency that offers independent budgetary and economic analysis to Congress.
Very often—an inevitable occupational hazard—the subject of national debt and the interest the U.S. Treasury pays to maintain is its central focus. The numbers are eye-watering: Public debt stands at more than $39 trillion. The interest expense on that borrowing now exceeds $1 trillion a year. Indeed, the latest budget update from the CBO highlights that the government—according to preliminary estimates—paid out nearly $530 billion between October 2025, when the fiscal year starts, and March 2026. This equates to more than $88 billion in interest payments a month, or more than $22 billion a week.
The CBO’s figures are routinely cited by policymakers, think tanks, and lobbyists as alarming evidence that the U.S. needs to find a more sustainable fiscal path or risk dire straits.
Swagel doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the U.S. will face a crisis of its own making. His justification is simple: He was at the Treasury during the 2008 financial crisis, and joined the CBO months before the COVID pandemic began. He has watched as the U.S. economy, seemingly against all odds, has clawed its way out of economic crises before.
That’s not to say Swagel isn’t a staunch advocate of setting the U.S. on a more sustainable fiscal path—rather, he trusts the people in power to do so when the time comes.
Why the optimism?
Among those concerned about national debt are notable names: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also worried about federal spending and has endorsed a plan floated by Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett that would render members of Congress ineligible for reelection if they allow deficits to exceed 3% of GDP.
On the other hand, optimistic economists suggest that, despite the value of the debt, it’s not actually an issue: the bond market is holding steady, indicating a reliable market of buyers. Likewise, the U.S.’s own central bank buys huge swaths of the debt, meaning, in the simplest of layman’s terms, the economy can essentially print its own money. There are holes in this argument, not least the fact that Fed chairman nominee Kevin Warsh has suggested he would like to reduce the Fed’s balance sheet and may therefore be less inclined to finance borrowing.
Swagel’s positive outlook doesn’t rely on the argument that a crisis hasn’t happened yet, so therefore it never will: “[My optimism] is rooted in my experience,” Swagel tells Fortune in an exclusive interview in Washington D.C. “First being at Treasury during the financial crisis and seeing very difficult times and the country coming together with an effective response—not saying it’s perfect, lots of controversy—but it was effective.”
“The second thing is policymakers are smart, they’re thoughtful. Interacting with members of Congress makes me optimistic. I know you read about all the squabbles … I’m completely aware of this, but the policymakers that are thinking about these things are thoughtful and effective. Not necessarily always effective at passing legislation, but that’s part of our political system, it was set up to make it difficult ot pass legislation.”
Decisions on the horizon
Swagel’s optimism that Congress will be pushed into action will be tested sooner rather than later, likely at some point in the next six years, he told Fortune. This is partly due to the fact that, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) both Social Security and Medicare will become insolvent within that time period.
“Making progress to address the fiscal trajectory would be a positive for the U.S. economy,” Swagel said. “Credible steps would lead to lower interest rates that would make the subsequent adjustment easier, there is a reward to virtue. It’s a positive thing, we can’t go on [with] the scolding narrative. My sense is that members of Congress understand the fiscal situation, it’s not that everyone single one has looked at our one-pager of numbers and understands the debt to the third decimal point, but they understand something needs to be done.”
“It doesn’t have to be done immediately, but at some point reasonably soon.”
Swagel is of the opinion that bond investors haven’t increased risk premiums not because they’re not worried about a fiscal crisis, but because they have priced in preventative action from Congress—in his mind “a vote of confidence that my optimism is not misplaced.”
“As a country, we face up to these problems. It’s not happening now, I’m not sure it’s going to happen in the rest of this year or even the next year, or the next two years. But we will face up to it, and the market in some sense expects us to, because otherwise interest rates would be higher,” he explained.
The Cheesecake Factory
The role of the CBO, to some extent, is to provide policymakers with their options if and when they do choose to take action on federal deficits. It’s a menu not unlike the Cheesecake Factory, Swagel says: Large, inclusive of a range of modifications and options, and delivered without judgement.
“Right now it’s maybe a pick three, and you’re looking at a six or seven course menu,” joked Caleb Quakenbush, director of fiscal policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, in an interview with Fortune. “The longer you delay, the more you’re gonna have to add to your tab, and those options become more expensive.”
Indeed, economists and analysts aren’t necessarily worried about the absolute level of government debt, rather the debt-to-GDP ratio. Depending on whom you ask, the debt-to-GDP ratio stands at around 122% of GDP at present. This measure demonstrates an economy’s spending versus its growth, and the risk associated with lending to a nation that isn’t growing fast enough to handle its spending. To rebalance that ratio, an economy could either cut spending or increase growth—the latter being by far the less painful option.
The growth option is becoming less feasible, Michael Peterson, CEO of fiscal think tank the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told Fortune in an exclusive interview: “I think it requires government action because we’ve waited so long. We’ve added so many trillions, and the current deficit is so big at 6% that the level of growth you would need really exceeds what is feasible.
“Growth needs to be a part of it, but it’s sort of a vicious cycle. The longer we delay, the more debt we have, the slower growth is going to be. The more we get this under control, I think the greater optimism there is, interest rates go down, more growth comes from that. It’s sort of a virtuous or vicious cycle depending on your policy response.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
Have a news tip or see an error? Write to us here. Please include the article’s headline in your message.
Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click here to get started.
Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
-
Missouri4 minutes agoNFL Draft: Saints host Missouri OL Keagen Trost for private workout
-
Montana10 minutes agoMontana man starts free ride service to keep drunk drivers off the roads
-
Nebraska16 minutes ago‘Nothing can hold me back’: Nebraska teen scores on first play after open heart surgery
-
Nevada22 minutes agoWinter Storm Watch For The Upper Sierra Nevada – myMotherLode.com
-
New Hampshire28 minutes agoTRAENE Fitness Pickleball Brings Pickleball Courts And Wellness Options To Dover
-
New Jersey34 minutes agoACLU featured at Bruce Springsteen No Kings show in New Jersey
-
New Mexico40 minutes agoLandlord AC ordinance, Rio Grande water levels, Spotty rain, New legislative office, New Mexico Motorfest
-
North Carolina46 minutes agoShooting in park near North Carolina school leaves two dead and several hurt