Federal City Council history

Urban planning and the federal contribution to the city's budget continued to occupy some of the Federal City Council's agenda in the early 1960s. It unsuccessfully pushed for a "Federal City Center" (a vast complex of government office buildings akin to Federal Triangle) in 1960.

In 1962, it won adoption of its proposal in the House of Representatives.

When the bill died in the Senate at the end of the 87th Congress, it went to the Senate and won passage there in 1963.

The Three Sisters Bridge project was killed in the House of Representatives in early December 1971.

The push for a convention center began in 1973.

The General Services Administration initially tried to lure the Securities and Exchange Commission to Buzzard Point by offering to construct it a new office building there in 1978, but this effort failed.

The existing convention center opened on December 10, 1982.

In June 1983, the Federal City Council proposed that a huge $300 million structure be built on unused land adjacent to Maine Avenue SW. Despite local citizen opposition, the organization convinced D.C. Mayor Marion Barry to begin pushing the plan through the D.C. City Council and Congress.

By October 1988, the Federal City Council also sponsored the creation of the Corporation Against Drug Abuse (CADA), an employer-funded entity to encourage the adoption of stricter drug testing and drug abuse policies in the workplace and to work against drug abuse generally in the community.

In 1989, the Federal City Council issued a report castigating the government of the District of Columbia for allowing the city's roads to deteriorate.

In May 1990, the city unveiled plans for a new $685 million, 2,300,000-square-foot (210,000 m) convention center backed by the Federal City Council and the Board of Trade.

In June 1995, the Federal City Council endorsed private management of low-performing schools.

Originally intended to cost $363 million, the $818 million Ronald Reagan Building opened on May 5, 1998, after years of funding and construction delays.

FC2 receives a grant to study the transit needs of the region through the year 2000—the first time an entity independent of Metro was authorized by the federal government to conduct such a study.

The Federal City Council funded a study of the school system's administration, staff training, and curriculum by McKinsey & Company in 2001.

The report, Assessing the District's Financial Position, released in March 2002, called for a commuter tax and restoration of an annual federal payment in lieu of property taxes.

In September 2004, the Federal City Council joined with the Board of Trade and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments to create a task force to study Metro's revenues and financing.

In 2006, the organization raised $100,000 to help incoming chairman of the Council of the District of Columbia, Vincent C. Gray, fund a multiyear strategy plan for council action.

Janney was fired by Mayor Adrian Fenty on June 12, 2007, and Michelle Rhee installed as the city's new Chancellor of Public Schools.

The Federal City Council was somewhat inactive on education reform for the first half of the 2010s.

In 2011, the Federal City Council began work on a new strategic plan to guide the organization's decision-making.

In April 2012, the Federal City Council hired former mayor Anthony Williams as its new executive director.

In 2013, the organization announced the creation of the Anacostia Waterfront Trust to coordinate regional efforts to end the continuing pollution of the Anacostia River and to begin cleanup efforts of the riverbed.

As part of its Anacostia River initiative, the council supported legislation (enacted in 2014) banning the use of polystyrene foam containers for use by food carryout providers.