White House sought funds for FBI HQ
Source: $1.75B provision in GOP stimulus bill
WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to be caught off guard by a $1.75 billion provision to rebuild the FBI headquarters in downtown Washington that the White House inserted into the Kentucky Republican’s own coronavirus relief bill he unveiled Monday.
“This was an administration request, but (McConnell) believes this should not have been included in the HEALS Act,” a Senate source with knowledge of the legislative negotiations told USA TODAY on Tuesday on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely.
While McConnell distanced himself from the FBI funding, he stopped short of saying he would try to remove the line item from the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability protection, and Schools Act, or HEALS Act.
“I am opposed to non-germane amendments, whether it’s funding for the FBI building or for example in the House bill whether it’s a tax cut for high income earners in blue states or other non-germane amendments like marijuana studies or aid to illegal immigrants,” he told reporters Tuesday.
The roughly $1 trillion measure would be the fifth stimulus bill Congress has taken up since the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected more than 4 million Americans, killed more than 150,000 and wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy. Democrats in the House have passed a much larger relief bill, known as the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act, or HEROES Act.
The FBI headquarters, named after former Director J. Edgar Hoover, has been in a state of disrepair for years and its future has been steeped in controversy.
Previous administrations have endorsed relocating to the Maryland or Virginia suburbs after government reports indicated it would be more expensive and inefficient to rebuild on the same lot, a parcel of prime real estate only a few blocks from the White House.
Trump has been a proponent of rebuilding on the current site. Shortly after he took office in 2017, the Trump administration canceled a site in Maryland that was supposed to be a potential site for the relocation.
“There’s nothing better than the (current) site,” Trump told reporters last week. “I’ve been encouraging them to build it . ... I know they’re talking about it, whether or not they put it in (the HEALS Act) or someplace else. But the FBI needs a new building, and we’ll get it done.”
Asked about the FBI building funding Monday, McConnell initially said he didn’t think it was in there. When a reporter quoted him the text of the provision, McConnell said “you’ll have to ask” the White House about the request.
The confusion represented a rare admission for McConnell, whose supporters regularly tout him as a master of the Senate whom little gets by as majority leader.
The bill already was under attack from senators in his own party when news of the FBI building funding came out.
“That makes no sense to me,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Tuesday, adding he’d be “fine” stripping out the money.