WASHINGTON — With Congress set to adjourn on Dec. 20, Maryland is running short of time and legislative options to achieve top priorities, as an essential bill faces some opposition.

House Republicans are raising concerns about legislation Maryland likely needs to ensure the federal government pays the full cost of replacing the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The Maryland delegation is working to obtain a bridge funding commitment and complete a deal with the NFL’s Washington Commanders, ensuring the area around the team’s Prince George’s County stadium can be redeveloped if the club relocates to the District of Columbia.

Also entangled in ongoing House and Senate negotiations is Maryland’s request to receive one of Washington’s two Air National Guard squadrons. Maryland has been trying to persuade the Air Force to preserve a flight mission in the state because the military is phasing out its A-10 “Warthog” attack aircraft, and no aircraft was designated to replace them.

The key to all three of Maryland’s federal priorities appears to lie in legislation called a continuing resolution, or CR, a catch-all funding bill stuffed with amendments that is necessary to keep the government running after Dec. 20.

House Republicans, particularly the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus — led by Republican Maryland representative Andy Harris — have raised concerns about the CR’s potential cost.

“Congressman Harris believes the Key Bridge should be funded — but with a $2 trillion annual deficit left from the Biden administration, we should look to offset any cost with savings elsewhere,” Harris’ office said in a statement Thursday to The Baltimore Sun.

Talks about the measure are continuing, the statement said.

As adjournment approaches, lawmakers often look for such vehicles — typically larger pieces of legislation headed for passage — on which to attach amendments that have not been approved as standalone bills.

“Time is short,” Sue Walitsky, the spokesperson for Democrat Ben Cardin, Maryland’s senior senator, said Thursday. “There are many priority issues for Maryland that need to get over the finish line before the end of Congress.”

In Maryland’s case, lawmakers say the CR may include the 100% bridge commitment, the transfer of the D.C. squadron, and language giving Washington control of the federally owned land on which the Commanders played games at RFK Stadium before moving to Maryland. That control would ease the path of a potential Commanders move back to D.C.

“All negotiations are now revolving around the CR,” said Francesca Amodeo, the spokesperson for Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

The Commanders and Washington elected officials have long expressed interest in the team returning to the D.C., where the team played until 1997. Van Hollen and Cardin have expressed concern that opening up the RFK site to the team would give the District an unfair advantage over Maryland in the franchise’s ultimate decision to relocate. But the senators have not ruled out supporting the RFK Stadium site legislation if they are convinced the Landover area will be redeveloped with the help of the team.

The bridge funding request is part of a larger disaster relief measure that has not yet passed.

In March, a container ship struck and knocked down the bridge, killing six construction workers and temporarily choking commerce to the Port of Baltimore by blocking the shipping channel.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has visited the bridge site and pledged multiple times that the federal government would pay the full cost of replacement.

While members of Congress of both parties have been publicly supportive of a new Baltimore bridge, some have expressed sticker shock at the cost, estimated between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion.

“Congress should not pass a whopping $100 billion unpaid disaster supplemental funding bill — that Democrats will use to cement their own unrelated priorities — in the waning days of Democrat control in Washington right before Republicans take control of the White House and both Chambers,” the Freedom Caucus said recently in a statement.

Bridge funding proponents have said their request is for authorization — not a specific funding amount — for the government to fully pay for bridge replacement.

Federal highways are generally funded with 90% federal money and 10% from the state level, but the White House has said a 100% percent federal cost share for rebuilding the bridge is consistent with the response to past bridge collapses.

The Key Bridge carried about 34,000 vehicles a day.

In April, Maryland lawmakers introduced a bill specifying that the federal portion of emergency relief funds for the “bridge and its approaches shall be 100 percent.” It mandates that any money recouped from insurance or liability payments be used to help offset the federal payments.

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