Senate committee backs $1.4B FBI HQ move over Democratic protests

It will cost $1.4 billion to retrofit the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., to house the FBI’s headquarters, according to a prospectus approved Wednesday by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in a 10-9 party-line vote. 

However, Democratic senators from Maryland, where Biden officials had chosen in 2023 to build a new headquarters before President Donald Trump nixed those plans, argued the current administration’s proposal underestimates the cost and ignores security concerns. 

According to the General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings, funding for the Reagan retrofit will come from nearly $844 million in unused money provided to the agency in past appropriations bills for construction of a new FBI headquarters as well as $555 million given over the years to the FBI for a new headquarters. 

“This approach addresses the needs and mission of the FBI and utilizes an existing federal building with a reasonable investment in renovation instead of significant expense and time waiting for new construction,” said Committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “I believe that GSA’s plan is a responsible and efficient way to address this years-long problem.”

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., countered that the Reagan Building currently houses headquarters for Customs and Border Protection, the National Children’s Museum and several private businesses. 

“Displacing these tenants would require relocation arrangements and early termination payments,” she said. “Repurposing the Reagan Building to serve as the FBI headquarters would not be an example of good asset management. In fact, it would actually remove productive use.” 

She also contended that the Reagan Building would not meet Level V security requirements, the highest risk level for federal buildings, noting that it’s above a D.C. metro station and has a public parking garage. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., echoed those concerns, citing an apparent lack of information in the proposal. 

“After the Trump administration has presented minimal planning and provided zero transparency, Republican members of the Environment and Public Works Committee approved on a party-line basis a prospectus with few details, no completed security plan and an incomplete cost assessment for a new FBI Headquarters located in D.C.,” he said in a statement.  

In his last year in office, Biden requested $3.5 billion for a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

According to GSA’s new prospectus, alterations to the Reagan Building will be complete in fiscal 2030. 

The plan, specifically the GSA funding component, must also be approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the congressional appropriations panels need to sign off on using past funding appropriated for construction of a new FBI headquarters to instead be put toward readying the Reagan Building for that purpose. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee in July had adopted a Van Hollen amendment blocking the FBI from moving into the Reagan Building, but the panel reversed itself a week later when Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, changed her vote after speaking with FBI Director Kash Patel. Still, Murkowski said she’s “not convinced that we've got enough information to know that ultimately the Ronald Reagan Building is going to be the best location.”

The FBI and GSA in July announced that the law enforcement agency would move its headquarters less than half a mile to the Reagan Building from its current downtown D.C. location, which has more than $300 million in deferred maintenance costs.