- In November, the GSA introduced that Maryland had been picked to land the brand new FBI headquarters.
- Maryland lawmakers, together with Gov. Wes Moore and Rep. Steny Hoyer, emphasised fairness of their pitch.
- Some Virginia officers who’ve decried the choice course of now need it reversed.
For over a decade, a bipartisan contingent of political leaders in Maryland and Virginia sought to land the brand new FBI headquarters.
The J. Edgar Hoover Constructing, a Brutalist complicated close to the White Home that has housed the company’s headquarters since 1975, grew to become functionally out of date years in the past, with staff dispersed amongst completely different areas within the area. The present location, whereas centrally situated, additionally has safety vulnerabilities {that a} newer and safer facility would rectify.
For years, the race to land the ability was intense. However federal officers final November chosen a web site in Greenbelt, Maryland, situated in suburban Prince George’s County and adjoining to an current Metro station — making it simply accessible to public transit.
The choice is a serious win for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Maryland Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, however particularly for Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, the dean of the Maryland congressional delegation and a longtime champion of the venture. Hoyer in a current interview instructed me that he first mentioned the transfer in 2009 with then-FBI director Robert Mueller.
“I went right down to the constructing, I checked out it, took a tour by means of it, and he confirmed me how decrepit it was,” Hoyer stated, noting that Mueller stated the state of the constructing was undermining the company’s effectiveness.
Hoyer, a former Home majority chief who endorsed Moore’s marketing campaign months earlier than the 2022 Democratic gubernatorial major, instructed Enterprise Insider that the now-governor “instantly seized” on the FBI subject even earlier than his eventual win within the major.
“He digested and understood the significance of our aggressive benefit and targeted on attaining that goal,” Hoyer stated. “And he acknowledged the significance of the FBI for Maryland and specifically for Prince George’s County.”
Prince George’s County, the majority-Black county on to the east of Washington, DC, has for years had one of the prosperous Black populations of any jurisdiction within the nation. However in comparison with Northern Virginia localities like Fairfax County, which has been an financial powerhouse for many years, Prince George’s County hasn’t loved an identical stage of financial growth.
ERIC BARADAT/AFP by way of Getty Photos
In that sense, the brand new constructing — which is able to consolidate and maintain roughly 11,000 staff underneath one roof — is a sport changer for Maryland.
“We’ve got 4% of leased federal workplace house in Prince George’s County,” Hoyer instructed me, whereas additionally declaring that the county is dwelling to roughly 20% of the Washington area’s federal staff. “Fairfax County has 11% of the workplace house, nearly 3 times as a lot as now we have.”
Hoyer, like Moore, argued in the course of the choice course of that a Maryland web site could be tied to fairness, not solely when it comes to race but in addition concerning the extent of federal funding.
“This venture might be value over $4 billion in financial exercise and it should solidify Maryland because the cyber capital of this nation,” the governor instructed me in a current interview. “The rationale that we made it such a excessive precedence is as a result of that is going to be one of the vital federal buildings that has ever been constructed.”
Virginia leaders, who for years argued {that a} suburban web site close to the Marine Corps Base Quantico was a greater match for the headquarters, have criticized the choice — and now the Basic Service Administration will conduct an analysis of the method.
In a November letter, a majority of Virginia’s congressional delegation requested that the choice to maneuver the headquarters to the 61-acre Greenbelt web site be reversed. And present FBI director Christopher Wray has expressed issues concerning the choice course of.
However a White Home spokesperson in November defended the choice course of as “truthful and clear.” And Maryland’s leaders stay assured.
“We’re completely satisfied that every part was executed correctly,” Hoyer instructed me. “And I have been satisfied from the very starting that Greenbelt was by far the perfect web site for all the explanations that the GSA finally discovered.”
