Senators Block Van Hollen's Attempt To Save FBI HQ Funds For MD

WASHINGTON, DC — A Senate committee on Thursday blocked Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen's attempt to keep the Trump administration from using allocated funds to move the Federal Bureau of Investigation's headquarters to Washington, D.C. instead of Prince George's County.

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment introduced by Van Hollen that sought to block the Trump administration from diverting funding already approved to build a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt. It was approved in a 15-14 vote, with Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski joining Democrats.

The partisan disagreement over the amendment, however, stalled progress on advancing the commerce, justice and science appropriations bill in which it was included.

On Thursday, Murkowski shifted her stance, the Washington Post reported, and the committee removed Van Hollen's amendment. Doing so cleared the way for the funding bill to advance without debate over the headquarters decision, according to the Maryland Association of Counties. The committee then approved the bill without the amendment.

"Not only is this reversal bad for the men and women of the FBI, who deserve a safe and secure headquarters, it also represents everything the American people have come to distrust about our political process," Van Hollen said in a statement. "How should Americans have faith in our legislating when a bipartisan amendment is what derails a bill, and the only solution to get it back on track is a partisan vote? It’s backwards, plain and simple."

Earlier this month, 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.

RELATED:

• New FBI Headquarters Headed To MD, Dealing Blow To VA Officials
• Moore, MD Officials Push For FBI Headquarters In Prince George's Co.
• MD Leaders Ask President Biden To Weigh In On FBI Headquarters Process

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.

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.

Van Hollen previously 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," he 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.

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.