A key U.S. Senate panel on Thursday narrowly approved an amendment, sponsored by Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, that puts a roadblock in the way of the plan of President Donald Trump’s administration to keep the FBI headquarters in D.C., in another building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
The amendment prevents the administration from diverting startup funding already approved for a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt.
Greenbelt was chosen by the General Services Administration over other sites in Maryland and Virginia after a battle that lasted close to 15 years.
The Democratic lawmaker’s amendment was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on a 15-14 vote, with Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski joining Democrats.
The Trump administration recently surprised Maryland lawmakers by announcing it planned to move the FBI a few blocks away, from its aging headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue to the Ronald Reagan Building.
In announcing his amendment, Van Hollen said allowing the White House to unilaterally shift funding for a new headquarters that lawmakers had already agreed to would set a bad precedent.
“What we’re asking here, is that the committee on a bipartisan basis not allow the administration to rescind — effectively — funds that we have on a bipartisan basis provided,” Van Hollen said.
FBI headquarters site still not settled
Van Hollen and other Democratic members of the Maryland congressional delegation have vowed to continue to fight to make sure the new FBI headquarters is built in Greenbelt.
He said the administration’s plan to move into the Ronald Reagan Building was “last minute” and came when “no security assessment has been done.”
Van Hollen and other lawmakers have questioned what would need to be done to upgrade the security at the Ronald Reagan Building and have pointed out that it doesn’t have a setback, which has been sought to make it less vulnerable to a terror attack.
But Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin took issue with Van Hollen’s comments about the building, during debate on his amendment.
“This is a federal building that’s being underutilized,” he said. “And to say that there hasn’t been a risk assessment to this is absolutely not true.”
Mullin said that the building has often hosted presidents and international dignitaries.
While Van Hollen got his amendment passed, lawmakers are still in the middle of the appropriations process and the FBI headquarters is likely to continue to remain in a legislative tug-of-war.
Maryland lawmakers are disappointed that they need to keep fighting for the Greenbelt site, since they thought the matter was finally settled when the GSA picked it in 2023.
But the only issue all parties appear to agree upon is that the current FBI headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, is in disrepair and is not suitable for the law enforcement agency.
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