Greenbelt, Maryland, picked to host new FBI headquarters, ending state's long push to be the agency’s home
BALTIMORE — Greenbelt, Prince George’s County, has won a competition to determine the site of a new FBI headquarters, according to members of Maryland’s congressional delegation.
Two Maryland sites, Greenbelt and Landover, had been competing with Springfield, Virginia, to be the home for a new headquarters to replace the outdated J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington, D.C.
The announcement by the General Services Administration on Wednesday night is a significant win for Gov. Wes Moore, the Maryland congressional delegation and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. They all lobbied for the project.
The jockeying for the headquarters and its thousands of jobs dates back more than a decade. In 2014, the GSA had said the project would be built at one of the three locations that were ultimately considered. The administration of former President Donald Trump instead proposed a new facility in downtown Washington.
In June, Moore asked Maryland’s congressional delegation in a memorandum to “continue to put pressure” on the GSA to ensure a “fair process” that will determine whether the state will land the new offices.
“This is a historic moment for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and our nation,” Moore, Alsobrooks and Democratic members of the Maryland congressional delegation said in a joint statement Wednesday night. “For decades, the dilapidated J. Edgar Hoover Building has failed to meet the FBI’s operational needs, which has undermined our national security. The once fabled building has crumbled before our eyes, with nets surrounding the facility for years to protect pedestrians from falling debris.”
The statement said the decision “will ensure we fulfill the FBI’s dire, longstanding need for a new consolidated headquarters that meets the modern-day demands on the Bureau’s work to protect Americans and our nation.”
Maryland lawmakers had previously expressed concern that the GSA, which manages federal government buildings, appeared to be giving too much weight to choosing a location close to the FBI training center in Quantico, Virginia.
The Maryland delegation said the FBI presented a document earlier in the spring saying proximity was central to its ability to respond to significant events. The delegation took issue with that assessment and said other factors, such as cost and equity, should be paramount.
Moore’s memorandum requested that the lawmakers “put pressure on the administration and GSA to revise their selection criteria to ensure a fair process.”
In March, Moore and other state Democrats wrote to President Joe Biden saying that Prince George’s, a majority Black county, would be a prudent fiscal choice and present an opportunity “to right the wrongs of decades of systemic racism and discrimination by our nation’s marquis law enforcement agency.”
Some House Republicans had threatened to try to cut funding for the multibillion-dollar project — or the FBI in general — because they believe the bureau has become politicized under Biden’s Democratic administration.
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