MD Senator Blocks Attempt To Keep FBI Headquarters In DC

WASHINGTON, DC — A Congressional panel on Thursday approved an amendment introduced by Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen that could block the Trump administration's plans to keep the Federal Bureau of Investigation's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The amendment sought to block the Trump administration from diverting funding already approved to build a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt. It was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee in a 15-14 vote, with Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski joining Democrats, WTOP reported.

Last week, the FBI and the U.S. General Services Administration upended the move to Maryland by selecting the Ronald Reagan Building complex in D.C. as the new location for the agency's headquarters. The building is just blocks from the bureau’s current headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building.

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The Reagan Building houses, among other tenants, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It also had been home to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which recently marked its last day as an independent agency.

Officials said the new location would provide the FBI with a "world-class facility" while also saving taxpayers money.

In a statement released Thursday, Van Hollen said allowing the White House to shift already-appropriated funds would set a bad precedent.

"This unauthorized use of funds is directly at odds with what has been passed by Congress on a bipartisan basis and sets a dangerous precedent for executive overreach into Congress’s power of the purse," Van Hollen said. "The administration has also not provided any information around the total cost of the project or whether it will meet the Bureau’s security needs."

The Trump administration's July 2 announcement followed nearly two decades of attempts to find a new space for the FBI and is a turnabout from plans announced during the Biden administration to move the bureau to a site in Prince George's County. The plan was to build on a 61-acre site near the Greenbelt Metro station as part of a mixed-use development.

The Maryland location was selected over nearby Virginia following a sharp competition between the two states. Congress had previously appropriated funds to complete the move to Greenbelt.

The FBI's current headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue was dedicated in 1975. Proponents of moving the headquarters have said the Brutalist-style building, where nets surround the facility to protect pedestrians from falling debris, has fallen into disrepair.

It was not immediately clear when such a move might occur or what logistical hurdles needed to be cleared to accomplish it.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump said he planned to halt the FBI's move to "liberal" Maryland.

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said of the move to Greenbelt during a speech at the U.S. Department of Justice in March, according to a Baltimore Banner report. “We’re going to build another big FBI building right where it is, which would have been the right place, because the FBI and the DOJ have to be near each other.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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