Congressionally appropriated funding for the construction of a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland, can easily be shifted to cover the cost of the Trump administration’s new plan to relocate bureau headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in D.C., according to a former top General Services Administration official.
“Legally, the administration may very well have the authority to move the money without doing anything,” said Dan Mathews, who served as GSA’s Public Buildings Service commissioner from 2017 to 2020, in an interview with WTOP’s Nick Iannelli.
“Typically, when Congress appropriates money to GSA, they’ll appropriate it to a broad account — a construction account — and they’ll earmark it for a particular project,” Mathews said. “But, at the same time, Congress includes a provision that says you can move the money between projects within this account, you only have to come back and basically request permission from the Appropriations Committee to do that.”
His comments come after Maryland lawmakers expressed concern that the Trump administration’s decision would undermine Congress.
Mathews said the whole Congress doesn’t need to act. Once the “reprogramming request” is made, the chairman of the committee can grant approval.
“Now, in practice, administrations honor that request, and they go back to the Congress and say, ‘Hey, things have changed, we want to spend the money on a different project for these reasons, here’s the justification for it, this is what we would do, here’s all the information you might need,'” Mathews said.
Typically, an administration seeks permission as a political nicety and the committee grants it, said Mathews, who was appointed during the first Trump administration.
“I would think as a matter of comity between the executive branch and the legislative branch, I suspect they will go and they will brief the committees. They’ll make their case, they’ll seek permission. But, ultimately, I’m not sure they actually have to do that.”
A strong case to make
In a joint statement, Maryland lawmakers said Congress had appropriated funds to build a new campus in Greenbelt.
“The FBI deserves a headquarters that meets their security and mission needs — and following an extensive, thorough, and transparent process, Greenbelt, Maryland, was selected as the site that best meets those requirements.”
Democratic lawmakers from Virginia echoed that sentiment.
“Moving the FBI from the Hoover Building to the Reagan Building isn’t a plan, it’s a punt,” said Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. “The law enforcement and intelligence professionals of the FBI deserve more than a hasty, improvised approach. They deserve a facility that matches the gravity of their work to keep Americans safe.”
Despite the disappointment expressed by Virginia and Maryland lawmakers, Mathews said the Trump administration “will have a pretty strong case to make. Remember, the purpose of the project wasn’t necessarily an economic development project — it’s because the existing FBI headquarters is falling apart, has been falling apart for a long time.”
Moving FBI headquarters to the Reagan building will be far less expensive than the new building approved by the Biden administration, Mathews said.
“The problem with the new construction plan has been Congress has never appropriated enough money to do it,” Mathews said. “They’re short by well over $1 billion, if not $2 billion, to go build a new facility.”
Mathews said relocating the FBI to the Reagan Building makes more sense, financially, than constructing a new building.
“It’s a very large building, it’s one of the youngest federal buildings in Washington, D.C. It’s probably in the best condition,” Mathews said. “They very well could do it with the money that they have, and not have to seek any additional funding from Congress.”
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