Albatross Meaning

(idiomatic) A long-term impediment, burden, or curse.

Example: Any of various large seabirds of the family Diomedeidae ranging widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific and having a hooked beak and long narrow wings.
2006 March 13, Richard Lugar, speech to the Brookings Institution,
  […] energy is the albatross of U.S. national security.