President Donald Trump’s administration’s announcement that the new FBI headquarters will be in D.C. instead of in Greenbelt was a blow to Maryland, which had lobbied to be the bureau’s next home. But the state’s elected leaders are not giving up and vowed to fight the move “with every tool we have.”
“We are looking at all avenues that we can use in order to prevent this,” Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy said, adding they were exploring legal options. “It’s not over yet.”
Rep. Steny Hoyer’s office also released a statement on behalf of the Democratic members of Maryland’s congressional delegation, the governor and Braveboy, promising to fight the proposal.
In support, Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner call the planned move “a hasty, improvised approach” and a “punt” that brushed aside years of planning.
However, the reaction from D.C.’s Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development was positive, telling WTOP that the FBI belongs in D.C.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Congress might not be willing to go along with the Trump administration’s request, which is asking for a “reprogramming,” in which money allocated for something gets reallocated for something else.
Former General Services Administration official Dan Mathews said for this type of request, 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, Mathews said.
Van Hollen said by law, congressional approval is needed — and in the Senate, it isn’t just done by a majority vote. He also thinks a majority of his colleagues might vote against the measure anyway, if given a chance.
“I think there are enough Republicans who don’t want to put the safety of the men and women of the FBI at risk,” Van Hollen said. “The reason that the three prior sites were under consideration was because they all met the security and setback requirements to ensure the safety of the men and women at the FBI. It was determined years ago that in order to ensure their safety now into the future, you needed a campus like the CIA has at Langley, like the NSA has out at Fort Meade.”
Van Hollen said the Ronald Reagan Building does not meet the security requirements that the considered sites at Landover, Greenbelt and Springfield were evaluated for.
“I think there’s going to be enough opposition in Congress to putting the safety of the men and women of the FBI at risk,” Van Hollen said.
In the statement released by the GSA on Tuesday, the FBI and other administration leaders said the Reagan Building will provide a “safer” and also a “world class” facility — and at a substantially lower cost than building a new facility in Greenbelt would cost.
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