WASHINGTON — The push to build new FBI headquarters seems to have stalled for now, but that isn’t stopping some politicians from trying to get the process moving again.
The sticking point seems to be the General Services Administration’s demand that the estimated $2.5 billion project be fully funded by Congress. Currently, close to a billion dollars have already been set aside. Earlier this month Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker wrote a letter to the GSA arguing that if a decision continues to be put on hold, the cost of the project is going to continue to go up.
In fact, Baker’s argument is that each year of delay raises the cost by another $100 million. The Washington Business Journal got a hold of the letter and says Baker’s administration came up with that number by applying what’s been, on average, about a four percent increase in annual construction costs, to the estimated price of the project.
In the letter, Baker also argues that a decision would help local governments begin preparing infrastructure improvements necessary to help accommodate the 11,000 or so employees who would be commuting there to work each day.
The federal government is waiting to decide between three sites: one at the Greenbelt Metro Station, one where the old Landover Mall used to be in Maryland and one in Springfield, Virginia.
