VIRGINIA, MARYLAND VIE FOR NEW FBI HOME

Virginia lawmakers are making their final push to build a new FBI headquarters in their state, while Maryland officials try to persuade the federal government to put it in Maryland.

The Washington Post reports that the jockeying is happening as the General Services Administration gets closer to a decision in the decade-plus-long effort.

In a letter to the GSA and FBI submitted Feb. 3, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, and most of the Virginia congressional delegation made a detailed case in hopes of swaying the federal government to prefer a site in Springfield, Va., instead of locations in Landover and Greenbelt in Maryland.

Virginia lawmakers also sought to compete more aggressively with Maryland on one component that Maryland has sought to elevate: that building the FBI in their community advances racial equity. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 that made advancing racial equity through federal agencies a priority, a move that considers the effects of federal investment in certain underserved communities.

“We didn’t want to shortchange ourselves in what we believe is a very powerful equity argument for Springfield, Fairfax,” Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Democrat who represents Springfield, said. “We’re a profoundly diverse community. Springfield itself is a majority-minority community.”

In an 11th-hour negotiation with Virginia congressional leaders, Maryland lawmakers secured language in a December federal spending bill that gave both states 90 more days to make final presentations to the GSA. Those consultations will begin in the coming weeks.

The agency is preparing to select the FBI headquarters location using five criteria; weighted most at 35 percent is serving the FBI mission, including proximity to the FBI Academy in Quantico and the Justice Department. Transportation access, development flexibility, promoting racial equity and sustainable siting, and cost to acquire and prepare the site are the other factors.