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insufficient for the purchase of property lying within the parkway taking lines. At the same time there was expressed increasing local opposition to the parkway.

In June 1969, in the face of these developments, the National Park Service indicated to the Smithsonian its continuing willingness to make Fort Foote Park itself available for museum park use and, further, offered for such use another of its tracts, namely, Jones Point Park, lying partly in Prince George's County, Maryland. The idea was that Fort Foote Park and Jones Point Park together might prove suitable for museum park purposes in lieu of the previously-approved single Fort Foote-Smoot Bay site. 

In December 1969, the Smithsonian submitted to the Bureau of the Budget a revised legislative proposal looking to combined use of Fort Foote Park and Jones Point Park. On January 26, 1970, the Advisory Board endorsed both this step and preliminary plans whereby the proposed museum park would focus initially upon the approaching Bicentennial of the American Revolution. In keeping with this the Advisory Board approved changing the name of the proposed facility to Bicentennial Park. In a report to the President, on July 4, 1970, the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission included Bicentennial Park among its specific recommendations. 

On June 24, 1971, Senator Clinton P. Anderson (for himself, Senator Hugh Scott, and Senator Alan Bible) introduced Senate Bill S.2153 in the 92nd Congress, to establish Bicentennial Park in the Smithsonian and to authorize the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian and the Secretary of the Interior to enter into an agreement for the use of Fort Foote Park and Jones Point Park. On August 3, 1971, Congressman Frank Bow introduced House Bill H.R.10311, with provisions parallel to those of S.2153. 

On February 4, 1972, the support of the administration was added when, in a message to the Congress on his District of Columbia Bicentennial Program, the President of the United States signified support of the proposed Bicentennial Outdoor Museum (the name had been changed from Bicentennial Park at the request of the National Park Service), designating it an important undertaking and asking prompt congressional action on pending