WASHINGTON – Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Steny H. Hoyer, Congressman Anthony Brown (all D-Md.) today secured the inclusion of language to advance the process for a new, consolidated Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in the Omnibus FY2022 funding package that the President signed into law today. The language focuses the site selection process to the three sites previously identified after an exhaustive process by the General Services Administration (GSA) and the FBI during the Obama Administration – Greenbelt, Landover, and Springfield – and requires the GSA to choose among them as expeditiously as possible. After the site is selected, GSA would have 180 days to send a report to Congress that would allow Congress to authorize the construction of the FBI facilities at the site.
“Getting the FBI a new, consolidated headquarters remains a critical national security priority,” said the lawmakers. “The language signed into law today will require that the GSA select a site from one of the three options previously identified by the GSA and the FBI during the Obama Administration, each of which can meet the needs of a new FBI. With the structural integrity of the Hoover Building in disrepair, this project is crucial to ensuring the FBI can carry out its mission. We have informed the Biden Administration that we want a site selected for the new headquarters in 180 days because of the urgent need for a site that meets our current national security challenges – a consideration that was neglected by the Trump Administration. We continue to believe that the Maryland sites offer the best opportunity for a new, consolidated FBI headquarters and will keep working to achieve that goal.”
The Omnibus FY2022 package includes language to advance the process for constructing a new consolidated FBI Headquarters project after years of delays. This language was included in the section of the bill under the jurisdiction of the Senate Financial Services and General Government (FSSG) Appropriations Subcommittee, which is chaired by Senator Van Hollen. Since 2004, the FBI has been discussing a new consolidated headquarters with the GSA. Such a facility would consolidate the headquarters employees at the Hoover Building with others in leased locations around the National Capital Region. During the Obama Administration, the GSA and FBI identified three sites that met the needs of the FBI for a new headquarters – Greenbelt, Landover, and Springfield. The Trump Administration abruptly stopped work on this process, negating nearly 14 years of planning and advocacy, and suggested that the FBI’s needs be served by tearing down the Hoover Building and building a new headquarters on the existing site. The Trump plan would have failed to provide adequate security for the FBI community and would not have met critical needs. Given these concerns, the lawmakers successfully fought throughout the Trump Administration to preserve the FBI headquarters project at the three original sites, as defined by years of study and a Congressionally-approved prospectus. The language included in this omnibus requires GSA to finally select a site for the FBI that will meet FBI’s needs today and into the future.
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