The federal government is taking over D.C.’s Union Station. What does that mean?

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Members of the South Carolina National Guard stand outside Union Station in Washington, D.C., last week. “Instead of being a point of pride, Washington’s Union Station has fallen into disrepair,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. As the administration officials walked through the Beaux-Arts building, heckled by protesters, they painted a picture of Union Station as an especially unsafe area. As Union Station fell into physical and financial disrepair, the private company that owned it looked for another way to use the space. Congress saved the station by passing the Union Station Redevelopment Act of 1981, which tasked the transportation secretary with overseeing “the rehabilitation and redevelopment of the Union Station complex primarily as a multiple-use transportation terminal.”The act led to the establishment of the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC) in 1983.