Thirteen members of the Georgia congressional delegation are pushing back on the State Department’s decision to build an entirely new training facility in Virginia rather than refurbish an existing facility in Brunswick, Ga.
But seven members of the Virginia congressional delegation accused the Georgia congressmen of “delaying” the project in Blackstone, Va., near Fort Pickett, by requesting reviews from the Government Accountability Office.
Georgia lawmakers wrote to the Government Accountability Office last week to ask for an independent review of the State Department’s reasons for declining to select the existing federal law enforcement training center as the site of its new embassy security center.
Republican Sen. David Perdue was among the Georgia lawmakers who voiced concerns over the State Department’s reasons for planning an entirely new facility in Virginia.
“From a business perspective, the lack of transparency coming from the State Department is alarming. If this is the federal government’s normal bidding process, it is not surprising Washington cannot complete timely, competitive projects,” Perdue told the Washington Examiner.
“Using an existing training facility rather than constructing a brand new, costly facility is clearly the fiscally responsible decision. Given Washington’s fiscal crisis, it is absurd we are even having this conversation,” he added.
Perdue fought to include a provision in the State Department Authorization Bill in June that called for a neutral review of the decision-making process that led the agency to settle on its plan to build training grounds from scratch.
In their letter to the Government Accountability Office, the Georgia lawmakers highlighted the relatively low cost to taxpayers of refurbishing the Brunswick, Ga. facility, which they said would be roughly $272 million. The cost to build a new facility in Blackstone, Va. would be $413 million, they said.
But the bipartisan group noted an earlier estimate that had put the cost of construction at $950 million before the scope and estimated cost of the project was inexplicably scaled back.
“We need an honest cost-benefit analysis of these facilities, rather than an apples to oranges comparison that hides how much it could cost taxpayers down the road,” Perdue said.
Rep. Tom Graves also touted the government’s need to weigh the costs and benefits of the Fort Pickett project before breaking ground.
“Blindly selecting a Virginia training site without the proper cost-benefit analysis of all options is unacceptable, especially when there may be a much cheaper and proven option available,” the Georgia Republican said Monday.
Republican Rep. Buddy Carter agreed with his fellow Georgians that the $413 million figure cited by the State Department likely masks additional costs that could drive the ultimate price tag of the Blackstone facility much higher.
“Obviously, as a delegation, we all oppose wasteful spending, and there’s no better example than what the State Department is proposing to do,” Carter told the Examiner.
Carter pointed to the State Department’s “history of wasting taxpayer money,” including the considerable cost overruns it has racked up building the U.S. embassy complex in Kabul.
“It’s obvious that it should be in Brunswick,” he said of the embassy security training headquarters.
The federal law enforcement training center in Brunswick, Ga. was built in 1975 and serves dozens of agencies.
Pooja Jhunjhunwala, a State Department spokesperson, said “synergies” were among the reasons why the Virginia site was selected for a brand-new facility at Fort Pickett.
Jhunjhunwala noted that the law enforcement training center in Georgia met only 10 percent of the “hard skills training requirements” needed for the foreign affairs security training center.
“Therefore, 90 percent of the Department’s requirements would need to be newly-constructed or modified” on the Brunswick grounds, Jhunjunwala said.
She said another major consideration was the cost of airfare for the State Department officials who would require training at the facility. Round-trip flight costs to the existing law enforcement center in Georgia would drain an estimated $91.6 million, while flights to the Fort Pickett site would cost just $9.7 million, Jhunjhunwala said.
The Benghazi Accountability Review Board highlighted the need for a foreign affairs security facility, where officers could train to protect embassies.
But Virginia lawmakers defended the decision to place the new security training facility in Washington’s backyard. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats, Republican Reps. Rob Wittman, Robert Hurt and Randy Forbes and Democratic Reps. Don Beyer and Bobby Scott voiced their support of the Fort Pickett project.
“Opponents of a dedicated Foreign Affairs Training Center, or FASTC, for our Diplomatic Security personnel have already delayed the construction of the project for more than a year by requesting the Government Accountability Office review the State Department’s selection of Fort Pickett as the best site to satisfy its training mandate,” the Virginia congressmen said in a joint statement provided to the Examiner.
“After the Administration separately concluded in an Office of Management and Budget review that Fort Pickett was the strongest site option – based on cost, distance, organizational synergies, capacity, agency partnerships and operational capacity—the Georgia delegation has now requested yet another study from GAO in an attempt to further delay progress on the project,” the Virginia lawmakers said Monday.
“Nearly three years after the tragic Benghazi attack, it is time for Congress to stand in support of our diplomatic personnel assigned to high-threat posts around the world by uniting around the fact that a FASTC should be built at Fort Pickett,” they added.
In April, members of the Virginia congressional delegation praised the State Department for its decision to build the new training facility in an area that needed the economic boost such a project would bring.
“The jobs and economic activity created by this project will be welcomed by this community, and the facility will have an important role in training those security officers who protect American diplomats around the world,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in April of the construction plans.
A congressional aide told the Examiner the Georgia delegation expects to see a GAO report within a month, but said there had been no official response from the watchdog.
