A Senate committee advanced the Trump administration’s plan to keep the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., scrapping a Maryland senator’s amendment that would have ensured the agency relocated to Greenbelt.
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s amendment blocking the Trump administration from moving the FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington.
But the surprising 15-14 passage of the amendment caused an impass in the committee, with Republicans saying they would change their votes from yes to no on the full Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriation bill. It includes billions in funding for numerous agencies and programs, including NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Commerce and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
On Thursday, the one Republican who voted in favor of Van Hollen’s FBI provision — Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — went back on her vote and supported another amendment to strike the language from the bill.
Murkowski said she decided to change her stance on the matter after meeting with FBI Director Kash Patel earlier in the week.
“I come to this decision based on the conversations that I’ve had with Kash Patel, I would encourage any members, either on this committee or off the committee, to have the same conversations, to have the same discussions,” she said during Thursday’s meeting.
“Despite the initial, bipartisan adoption of my amendment last week, the Republicans made an about-face, and reversed course on addressing the Trump Administration’s unauthorized attempt to reprogram funds to move the FBI to the Ronald Reagan Building instead of the site selected following a years-long, competitive process, in Greenbelt, Maryland,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “They put obedience to Trump above the security and welfare of the men and women of the FBI. Given this backwards action, I was unable to support the final legislation.”
The FBI was expected to relocate to Greenbelt, Maryland, near the Metro station — a site passed by Congress and signed by former President Joe Biden in 2023. More than 7,000 employees would have been moved to the newly constructed installation after a competitive process to win the bid — which included two sites in Virginia.
Trump and Patel have been vocal about not liking that plan.
“Moving to the Ronald Reagan Building is the most cost effective and resource efficient way to carry out our mission to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution,” Patel previously said.
Construction on the Greenbelt site was expected to begin in four years, and it would have taken another 14 years before employees could move in.
“This move not only provides a world-class location for the FBI’s public servants, but it also saves Americans billions of dollars on new construction and avoids more than $300 million in deferred maintenance costs at the J. Edgar Hoover facility,” GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Michael Peters said.
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Maryland officials have pushed back on the administration’s decision. Van Hollen said the fight is “far from over.”
“Should the FBI ignore the objection to this reprogramming and attempt to move forward, Kash Patel shouldn’t get comfortable in his new office. I will continue working to bring the FBI Headquarters to Greenbelt, Maryland, and I will not support a penny in funding for a headquarters elsewhere – especially one that does not meet the security and mission needs of the FBI,” he said.
The FBI said it required a substantial setback from public roads, which is part of what made Greenbelt an ideal setting and why the bureau wanted a suburban location as opposed to an urban one.
Planning to move the FBI out of the dilapidated J. Edgar Hoover Building began more than a decade ago.
Everything is failing in the building, according to the FBI and GSA, from the structure itself to its infrastructure, including its IT capacity.
The Reagan Building currently houses U.S. Customs and Border Protection among other agencies.
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