The FBI pledged on Wednesday to deliver a new plan by the end of the year on how it will construct a new headquarters after its last plan was abruptly scuttled last month.
Top Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming managed to secure the commitment during an oversight hearing he headed on why the project was canceled without first informing Congress.
“It is clear from today’s testimony that: the FBI needs a new headquarters; [and] fixing up the [existing] Hoover building with its $100 million backlog of maintenance needs makes little sense,” said Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that oversees all federal public works projects.
“The elaborate plan to swap the Hoover building for a new headquarters facility was, in hindsight, not the best option,” he said. “We need a new, cost-effective and achievable plan to get the FBI into a new headquarters facility.”
At the end of the hearing, Barrasso asked the officials to commit to coming back to his committee in 120 days with a plan on how to move forward on “a workable solution to FBI’s headquarter needs.” Both officials agreed. He told them to “expect this committee to hold another hearing on this subject before the end of the year.”
The FBI and the Government Services Administration unexpectedly canceled the project to build a new headquarters in July because of what it called a “funding gap” in the government’s fiscal 2017 budget. Maryland and Virginia officials spent years working on their bids to win the highly prized relocation of the FBI. The three locations that were being considered were Greenbelt and Landover in Maryland and Springfield, Va.
Barrasso told FBI and GSA officials at the Wednesday hearing that it was inappropriate for the agencies to cancel the plan to build a new headquarters without first informing his panel and the Congress.
“The security and efficiency arguments for this are clear. What is not clear is why this project was suddenly halted, why Congress was not notified in advance, and what happens now,” Barrasso said.
