A US Senate committee voted on party lines Wednesday in favor of relocating the FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in downtown Washington, rejecting a transfer to Maryland. The Republican majority on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 10-9 to approve a resolution that puts the General Services Administration one step closer to relocating around 6,000 FBI workers to the Reagan Building.
FBI headquarters relocation
The move was swiftly slammed by Maryland’s two senators, who stated that the legislation still requires the agency’s new headquarters to be in Greenbelt, following a multiyear search for a new location.
The vote on Wednesday would overturn the agency’s 2023 decision to relocate employees from the aging FBI headquarters in the J. Edgar Hoover Building to a location in Prince George’s County, near the Greenbelt Metrorail station. Before that decision, Maryland and Virginia conducted almost a decade of research and competition to recruit the FBI to their respective jurisdictions.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), a committee member, stated that the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 required the GSA to select one of three locations, including two in Prince George’s County and one in Springfield, Virginia.”The Reagan Building and D.C. were not eligible sites under the law,” said Alsobrooks, who was the executive of Prince George’s County from 2018 until her Senate race.
Security vs polices of the FBI
“The new location of the FBI headquarters should not be based on politics,” she stated before Wednesday’s vote. “The legislation provided a clear way. Congress supplied financing and oversight, and the GSA made its choices. That option remains the only legitimate one.”
Also, Brooks and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said that the Reagan Building’s location and architecture “are inconsistent with federal security standards,” which the FBI is supposed to follow. Among other security flaws, they cited public access to a parking garage for other tenants in the Reagan Building.
The Republican majority rejected the language.
“In taking this unprecedented step to overrule the Committee’s minority in this decision, Republicans are undermining the mission and safety of the men and women of the FBI and also setting a dangerous precedent for future Committee decisions,” Van Hollen said in a written statement. “They’ve become rubber stamps for an unconstitutional administration. They should feel ashamed.”
According to a GSA prospectus on the transfer, the anticipated project cost for design, construction, management, and inspection is roughly $843.7 million. An extra $555 million from the FBI, which would include preconstruction and “fit-out requirements,” would bring the total to roughly $1.4 billion.
Whitehouse shutdown standoff
The White House is using three Defense Department accounts to pay troops this week as the government shutdown continues. The White House has set aside $1.4 billion from the research, development, test, and evaluation account, $1.4 billion from the department’s procurement account, and $2.5 billion from the One Big Beautiful Act to cover military salaries. The White House stated that it cost approximately $6.5 billion to fund military salaries for the first half of October. Senate Democrats filed the Armed Forces Pay Act on Thursday, a plan that would ensure military troops are paid during the government shutdown, but Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked the idea.
Maryland (WBFF)
The future of the FBI headquarters in Maryland looks increasingly gloomy. The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works authorized a proposal for moving the FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, D.C. It was adopted along party lines despite the concerns of Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks and other Democrats.
The approval boosts the Trump administration’s campaign to relocate the bureau just off the National Mall, abandoning the Greenbelt site chosen after a years-long competition for the new headquarters.
The approval strengthens the Trump administration’s effort to relocate the agency just off the National Mall, abandoning the Greenbelt location chosen after a years-long competition for the new headquarters. “This is unprecedented,” Senator Angela Alsobrooks told The Baltimore Sun. “We had a protracted procedure. The [General Services Administration] issued its decision. And now here we are, about to change to a site that was never even considered.