Maryland’s leaders have proposed a swap that could greatly affect the Washington Commanders football team’s stadium search: If the district gives their state one of its Air National Guard squadrons, the lawmakers will not oppose a bill allowing the district to redevelop the RFK Stadium site.

The condition, which Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) is helping to broker, adds a new high-stakes layer to negotiations in Congress over the future of the aging stadium site on the banks of the Anacostia River. If Washington can redevelop the site, that would probably offer it a significant advantage in convincing the team to leave Maryland and play once again in its namesake city.

The flight squadron is one of three requests Maryland’s two senators - who would prefer to keep the Commanders in suburban Landover - have made in exchange for backing the bill that would give Washington control of the federally owned RFK site, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive private negotiations.

They have also requested a public statement from the Commanders about their preferred location for the next stadium and assurances about what the team would build in place of Northwest Stadium, the outdated facility where the team plays, the people said. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has emphasized the importance of the flight squadron in the deal, those people said.

Washington leaders have signaled a reluctance to give up their National Guard Squadron.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) called Maryland’s proposed transfer “troubling.”

“Transfer would leave the DCNG with no aviation units, forcing it to be reliant on the goodwill of other National Guards for common aviation matters that arise in D.C., such as intercepting aircraft, patrolling the skies and rescuing or evacuating people in emergencies,” Norton said in a statement Tuesday. “While D.C. could request assistance from other National Guards, there is no guarantee the air assets would be provided in a timely manner - or at all.”

“D.C. rightly deserves to benefit from the land where RFK Stadium sits falling into disrepair and the exchange for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over the campus to D.C. should not come at the expense of the DCNG’s aviation resources,” Norton’s statement said.

Washington would retain one of its two squadrons under Maryland’s proposal, but would lose access to the fighter jets.

A spokesperson for Washington Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) declined to comment on the negotiations.

Maryland lawmakers have objected to Congress letting Washington redevelop the site on land it gets free, including by turning it into a possible new football stadium housing the Washington Commanders. That arrangement, they argue, would grant the district an unfair advantage in the regional competition to host a new home for the Commanders, whose owners are eager to abandon Northwest Stadium and build a new facility in a modern sports entertainment destination. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has emphasized the fairness element in negotiations, according to one person familiar with the negotiations.

Maryland senators and congressmen have also separately been pushing in Congress and in the Pentagon for months to be granted control of Washington’s 121st Fighter Squadron. Maryland is poised to be the only state without a National Guard flying mission next year due to U.S. Air Force plans to convert the state’s existing squadron into one with cyber responsibilities on the ground.

The two completely unrelated issues crossed paths, however, when supporters of the RFK bill lobbied top congressional leaders to attach that legislation to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets military policy for the year.

While the RFK bill passed the House and advanced from a Senate committee with broad bipartisan support, time is running out in the congressional session, and supporters of the bill see the NDAA as its best path to fruition. It is not likely to get a stand-alone vote on the Senate floor at this late stage.

Negotiating the NDAA typically involves dozens of proposals to include amendments or attach other bills, and congressional leadership must decide which to include; Washington, however, has no senators advocating on its behalf at the negotiating table.

Now, with the NDAA functioning as the backdrop of RFK negotiations, Maryland senators have brought a key military request to the negotiating table — gaining control of Washington’s air fighter squadron, whose F-16 fighter jets are poised to defend the National Capital Region.

Losing its own flying mission leaves Maryland without the ability to put its own pilots in the sky during an emergency. The Washington fighting squadron is already housed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland but is under federal control.

Gaining authority over the air squadron would be a consolation prize for Maryland if the RFK bill passes because state leaders view its approval as a potential precursor to losing the Commanders to Washington.

Maryland leaders want to ensure that the roughly 200 acres the Commanders own near Northwest Stadium does not languish and leave the Landover area with an abandoned and rusting football stadium like the one that Washington is now eager to replace.

The passage of the RFK bill would not guarantee the team’s move - a divided city council would have to negotiate and approve any incentive package, and the city would have to strike a deal with the team.

But its passage — with or without concessions to Maryland — would clear a way for Washington to finally launch on redevelopment plans, including allowing Bowser to more formally negotiate with the Commanders.

Cardin and Van Hollen, both Maryland Democrats, did not answer questions about the negotiations.

But they reiterated their contention that the RFK bill would unfairly favor Washington in the Commanders’ stadium search.

“The federal government should not tip the scales of a decision about where the Commanders will have their long-term home by giving away land for free,” Cardin and Van Hollen said in a joint statement to The Washington Post.

“It’s not in the best interest of federal taxpayers, and good-faith negotiations should be on a level playing field. We will continue pressing for a fair process and direct engagement between Maryland and the Commanders.” The Commanders also did not comment on the negotiations.

“The Commanders have been fortunate to have interest from three incredible jurisdictions as we search for a new home and stadium,” a Commanders spokesperson said in a statement. Schumer has personally become part of the negotiating process, calling the Maryland senators directly and meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Commanders owner Josh Harris, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

On Monday, Goodell and Harris went to Capitol Hill and met with Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Senate Majority Leader-elect John Thune (R-South Dakota), according to a person with direct knowledge of the meetings, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private meetings.

Schumer told Goodell and Harris to “solve [the problem] with the Maryland Senators,” the person said. Maryland and the Commanders planned to meet Tuesday afternoon, according to two people with direct knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations. The Commanders contingent included minority owners Mitchell Rales and Mark Ein, one person said.

The NFL declined to comment. Schumer’s office declined to comment on the specifics of the negotiations. “The RFK bill is being looked at and Leader Schumer is consulting with the senators from Maryland and Virginia,” a spokesman said in a statement identical to one Schumer’s office released in early November. Washington Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said he was not part of deliberations about whether to green-light Maryland’s request, but he generally opposed the idea. “I am not in support of the air wing transferring jurisdictions to Maryland,” he said in an interview. “The air wing has historically been a part of our National Guard.”

Maryland has been lobbying for months to keep a National Guard flying mission within its borders.

The U.S. Air Force announced in March a plan to retire 21 aging planes — A-10 Thunderbolt IIs — used by Maryland’s Air National Guard at a base housed on Martin State Airport in Middle River, Maryland, about 20 minutes outside of Baltimore. Under that plan, which needs congressional approval in the NDAA, the state would gain a ground unit with cyber responsibilities.

“In partnership with our congressional delegation, we are advocating vigorously to maintain Maryland’s flying mission, both in the interest of national security and the hundreds of jobs and families that will be affected by this transition,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said the day of the Air Force announcement, which he said did not include plans for retaining experienced pilots in the state’s guard.

“We are committed to working with our federal partners at the White House and the Pentagon to acquire another flying mission in Maryland this year,” Moore said.

Through a spokesperson, Moore declined to comment on the proposal to gain a squadron at the expense of dropping opposition to the RFK bill.

Some of Maryland’s congressional leaders, including the senators, lobbied for the state to gain control of Washington’s 121st squadron in April, according to documents obtained by The Post.

Washington leaders had rebuffed the request, with Norton writing in a letter to U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall that: “This would gut the D.C. Air National Guard and make D.C. residents and the nation’s capital less safe.”

She said it would reduce the size of the district’s National Guard by 40 percent, “degrading” the ability to respond to civil disturbances and natural or man-made disasters in the nation’s capital.

The Washington Air National Guard also flies the C-40 aircraft, which is generally used to transport high-level military and government personnel.

Redeveloping the waterfront RFK Stadium site has been a top economic development goal for Bowser, who wants to get rid of the sea of asphalt surrounding the rusted shell and turn it into a mixed-use commercial, residential and entertainment hot spot anchored by the football stadium. She commissioned a study that estimated that type of development, anchored by an NFL stadium, could result in 2,095 annual new jobs and $1.26 billion in economic output annually — though some economists were skeptical of its findings.

But none of that is possible without legislation from Congress first giving the district control of the federal land.

Maryland has been an ally to Washington on home rule issues and statehood — in fact Van Hollen has led the charge in the Senate to give the Washington mayor control of the city’s National Guard. The president is the commander in chief of the district’s National Guard, a power structure that came under prolonged scrutiny after the guard’s delayed deployment during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Commanders have been shopping for a new home for years: In 2008, former owner Daniel Snyder began discussing returning to the district with city officials, according to the book “Capital Sporting Grounds: A History of Stadium and Ballpark Construction in Washington, D.C.”

The stadium search stalled under the final years of Snyder’s rocky tenure.

In recent months, under new ownership, it appears the team is leaning toward pursing a stadium in Washington.

Since his group bought the team in July 2023, Harris, the majority owner, had always taken great pains to answer questions about the stadium by complimenting Washington, Maryland and Virginia.

But in a recent interview with Bloomberg, he called Washington the most politically viable because it would be the “most accepted by all three jurisdictions.”

Paul Kane and Nicki Jhabvala contributed to this report.