Report: The Scandal Around the Biden Harris Administration's Politicized Site Selection for New FBI Headquarters

Since launching the investigation, the Committees have reviewed over 7,500 documents from both GSA and FBI, conducted two transcribed interviews, and received several briefings about the site-selection process for the new FBI headquarters. The documents and testimony reveal the process was tainted by politics from the start. For example:

• The GSA political appointee who served as the site-selection authority was the third site-selection authority for the FBI headquarters project and was the only political appointee of the three. According to an FBI official, her selection for this role contradicted an earlier statement made by Administrator Carnahan that only career GSA officials would run the site-selection process.
  
• The GSA political appointee ordered a "back-check" meeting soon after the panel had already agreed to recommend Springfield, Virginia, as the new headquarters site. During this meeting, the political appointee showed favorability toward the Greenbelt site, which is owned by her former employer-the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. (WMATA).
  
• GSA politicized the site-selection process by giving significant weight to criteria meant to further the Biden-Harris Administration's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The entire site-selection process is emblematic of how the political environment of the nation's capital has tainted federal law enforcement and eroded public trust in the FBI. Despite lingering concerns from the FBI, Congress, and the general public, GSA continues to defend the process and decision, and is moving forward with trying to acquire the Greenbelt site.

In place of another politicized headquarters in the National Capital Region, Congress ought to consider moving headquarters operations out of the Washington area. Fortunately, the FBI already possess as state of the art "second headquarters" at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, that could serve as a headquarters facility far from the political intrigue and political motivations that have plagued the FBI in recent times.

Read the full interim staff report here.

Read the redacted transcript with Assistant Director of the FBI's Information Management Division Shannon Parry here.

Read the redacted transcript with former GSA official Nina Albert here.

In addition, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, House Judiciary Committee, and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability sent a letterto GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan about the errors in GSA's prospectus report on the reported cost and leasing space for the proposed Greenbelt, Maryland FBI headquarters location.

The Committees believe that the current proposal for a new FBI headquarters is inadequate, ill-defined, and does not take into account the current requirements of the FBI. Accordingly, GSA should submit a prospectus that includes accurate and updated information on costs and scope and considers alternative solutions on locations that may better meet the FBI's current mission. Until such a prospectus is submitted and the concerns identified are addressed, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has insufficient information to call the prospectus up for Committee action.

Read the letter to Administrator Carnahan here.

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