A member of Maryland’s delegation pushed back on President Donald Trump’s comments singling plans to scrap moving the FBI’s headquarters to Prince George’s County.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen told WTOP that moving the FBI to a new headquarters outside of D.C. was about a decade in the making, culminating in a decision made by the General Service Administration (GSA) in 2023. Greenbelt is about a 22-35-minute drive to the FBI’s current headquarters in Northwest D.C.
“This would be a great disservice to the men and women of the FBI to try to change the current decision, which is that both for mission reasons and security reasons, the FBI headquarters should move to Greenbelt, Maryland,” Van Hollen said.
On Friday, Trump, while speaking at the Department of Justice, called for an end to the planned relocation, incorrectly stating the agency should not be moving “three hours away” to Maryland, what he called “a liberal state.”
“We’re going to stop it. We’re not going to let that happen,” Trump said. “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.”
According to Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel signaled moving the agency into an “old Department of Commerce” instead of the planned move to Maryland.
Prior to Trump’s comments, nobody in the administration reached out to Van Hollen about a proposed change to the FBI relocation plans. The senator told WTOP he would not support an effort to build the new home of the FBI in a place that doesn’t meet the requirements like Greenbelt did during the selection process.
“We will fight to make sure that the Greenbelt decision stands,” Van Hollen said. “No matter how long that takes.”
The GSA selected a 61-acre site near the Greenbelt Metro Station as the future home of the FBI in 2023, following yearslong selection process. According to Van Hollen, it was understood during the process that the FBI needed a “more campus-like setting” and not a downtown location.
In a joint statement, Maryland’s delegation — which includes Gov. Wes Moore and U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks — said it plans to follow the 2023 decision, adding that moving to Greenbelt “offers the lowest price and the best value to the taxpayers.”
If Trump reverses the GSA’s decision, Van Hollen said a whole new process would need to begin, and funding would need to be appropriated by Congress.
“This process will just take a lot longer,” Van Hollen said. “It will be drawn out, and that is a great disservice to the men and women of the FBI.”
Last year, Prince George’s County officials boasted that the relocation of the FBI headquarters will further enhance the county and its economic future. Construction of the new facility isn’t expected to start until 2029, and FBI staff is expected to move in around 2036.
A report released by a federal watchdog in February called the process flawed, causing the site to be chosen over a potential location in Springfield, Virginia.
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