With the federal government’s decision looming, state officials from Virginia and Maryland are making their final proposals to bring the FBI’s new headquarters to their respective states.
After being shelved during the Trump administration, decades-long plans to move the FBI from its longtime home at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington are now on a fast track to ratification. Possible locations were first selected during the Obama administration, with Springfield, Landover, and Greenbelt comprising the three finalists. Landover and Greenbelt are in Maryland.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and a majority of the state’s congressional body on February 3 submitted a letter to the General Services Administration and FBI praising Springfield as the best option, noting that the area’s diverse community would be a boon to the Biden administration’s push to promote racial equity in the federal workplace.
“We didn’t want to shortchange ourselves in what we believe is a very powerful equity argument for Springfield, Fairfax,” Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., said. “We’re a profoundly diverse community. Springfield itself is a majority-minority community.”
Final proposals are expected to be submitted to the GSA no later than the end of February or early March, the report said.
In a statement last August, the GSA and FBI confirmed the need for the prospective headquarters to be “a downtown facility to allow for continued FBI accessibility to the public and close proximity to the Department of Justice and other key downtown partners.”
One such partner that gives Virginia a leg up in the competition, the report said, is the FBI Academy in Quantico. That location, officials argue, greatly improves the FBI’s mission capability and is “a core part of FBI day-to-day operations, today and in the future,” FBI spokeswoman Sofia Kettler said.
In fact, 35 percent of the location selection criteria is tied to servicing the agency’s mission, the Associated Press report said. Transportation (25 percent), development flexibility (15 percent), racial equity and sustainability (15 percent), and cost (10 percent) comprise the other factors.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., staked his claim for the new HQ building last August, lauding Virginia’s ability to enhance the FBI’s long-term mission with a facility that could improve law enforcement and national security missions.
“I’m glad that the Biden administration recognizes that need and is working to select a site for a new FBI HQ,” Warner told Fox 5. “I’m going to continue to work with the administration to deliver an FBI headquarters that best supports the mission of the men and women of the FBI, and strongly believe in the merits of the Northern Virginia site.”
The much-anticipated move comes as the FBI’s current headquarters, a 2.8-million-square-foot building that opened in 1975, is in dire need of repair. Many government officials, including President Joe Biden, have questioned the building’s ability to support the FBI’s future mission.
Feature image courtesy Kristina Blokhin/stock.adobe.com
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