Hoyer Discusses the Selection of Greenbelt for the New FBI Headquarters on "The Joe Madison Show"

WASHINGTON, DC — On Monday morning, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Joe Madison on "The Joe Madison Show" to discuss the selection of Greenbelt, Maryland for the new, consolidated FBI headquarters. Below are excerpts of his remarks and a link to the audio:

To listen to the interview, click here.

On the Selection of Greenbelt, Maryland for the FBI Headquarters
“We're looking forward to — and Governor Moore is looking forward to and County Executive Angela Alsobooks — to doing everything we can to make this move as smooth and as prompt as possible and make sure that the FBI employees have one of the best environments of any federal employee in the country.”

On the Equity Criteria
“Well, one of the reasons equity is a part of the conversation is in the distribution of federal facilities in our region, there is a real imbalance. We have, in Prince George's County, 4% of the federal office space — of leased office space — while Fairfax has almost three times as much. In terms of the non-federal building investment, Prince George's County and Fairfax County are disparate and have over 250% greater value, real estate value, in Fairfax than in Prince George's — although both are among the wealthiest counties, although Fairfax is the second wealthiest, and Prince George's down about 102[nd wealthiest county in the country].”

“But we have the largest minority population of any suburban county in America. That's why the NAACP weighed in on behalf of Prince George's County, both on the equitable distribution of federal property. Again, we have 4% of the lease space — they have 11[% of leased federal office space]. Ironically, Joe, and this will probably not surprise you and doesn't surprise a number of the leaders in Prince George's County, we have 48% of the warehouse space while Fairfax has 23[% of leased federal warehouse space], half as much. I don't want to go too deeply into the explanation of that, but Prince George's County is not just a warehouse site.”

“… It's got extraordinary facilities available in proximity, including Metro, which is right next to the site that has been selected by GSA. From an equity standpoint, from a standpoint of transportation, and by the way, we believe we are a billion dollars less cost than the site in Virginia.”

“Yeah. It's not difficult to understand why Greenbelt was chosen by the GSA. It's not surprising, frankly, that those who lost are, again, raising issues of this, that, and the other. But I think this decision was made transparently, legally, and with great care after an extraordinary opportunity for the Prince George’s delegation and the State of Maryland and the Fairfax delegation and the state of Virginia to make independent presentations to the GSA—which usually doesn't happen.” 

“But in this case, it did, and we both made arguments. I think our arguments were compelling, both on equity, on cost, on transportation proximity, and the site location, and flexibility. The one thing that we couldn't do was when GSA set as a principal consideration — proximity to Quantico. Well, we've been at this business since 2009, and nobody mentioned that until 2022. Obviously, it's clear once you decide that proximity is an issue, if you choose one state being approximate to, the other state, i.e, Maryland, couldn't compete being closer to Virginia than Virginia is. But that is not the mission of the FBI. The mission of the FBI is to protect and preserve this country, maintain law and order, and protect our constitution.”

“That mission would have been met at any one of these three destinations. We're very confident — Governor Moore very confident, Angela Alsobrooks very confident. And our congressional delegation, Senator Van Hollen and Senator Cardin — Senator Cardin has worked very, very hard on this for the last 10 years. I've been at this since '09, 14 years ago, and we're glad that the decision is made. Now we look forward to implementing it.” 

On the State of the Hoover Building
“Thanks for asking that question. The problem with it — it's been falling down. When Director Mueller, who was then the Director of the FBI, came to me in 2009, 14 years ago, he said, ‘Congressman, our building is falling down. It is dangerous to the people who work there and dangerous to people who even visit there or walk around the block.’”

“They have concrete falling from inside the building, leaks occurring, and concrete falling off the facade of the building, so they have netting around the building to make sure it doesn't hurt pedestrians who are walking below. It's falling apart. That's one reason. But also it was designed over a half a century ago, and it was not designed for the way the FBI works now. Both Director Mueller and Director Comey indicated that they not only needed a new building because of security — that is to say, the security requirements as CIA did when it moved out to Virginia and the NSA when it moved to Anne Arundel County — they need a setback so that somebody doesn't drive up a truck beside it and blow it up. We saw what happened in Oklahoma when so many people lost their lives when somebody did that.”

“The reason we need a new building is A, to achieve, I should say, security buffers. 
So they needed a large piece of property to accomplish that objective, which was achievable in a suburban setting, as Director Mueller indicated to me. And secondly, the building itself is dilapidated, falling down, does not meet the needs of the FBI.” 

On the New Headquarters Being State-Of-The-Art
“Absolutely. It is not only state-of-the-art, but state-of-the-science and architectural — to make sure that the new challenges, cybersecurity, terrorism, and others that the FBI faces and the way they are now working can be accomplished.”

“Also, what this headquarters is going to do at whatever site, what this headquarters is going to do is consolidate the employees. There are about 3,500 around working there and about 4,500 in 14 or 15 lease spaces around the city.”

“A very inefficient way to operate, and I might add, as you can understand, an expensive one, which is again why we're going to save money by building this building over the long term because we're going to get out of lease space and have the synergy of being together in a building that will accommodate the way they do work and the fact that they interface with other offices. So, it's going to be a win-win for everybody.”

On Republicans Calling to Defund the FBI
“Well, Joe, it's sad that the FBI, by our Republican colleagues, has been so demagogued and disparaged. The Republicans beat their breasts and say, ‘We're for law enforcement.’ Well, the FBI is the premier law enforcement agency in the United States, and if not the, one of the most prestigious law enforcement agencies in the world.” 

“And they want to defund it. They want to undermine its ability to do its work at a time when its work is even more important than it ever has been, given external terrorism, cyber security attacks on our nation, and other technological uses of technology to put us at risk.” 

“So it's a shame. They talk about funding the police, funding law enforcement, and that Democrats are for cutting it, that they have offered amendment after amendment to cut it.” 

“Now, the good news is that they have not gotten the majority of the Republicans to vote for that at this point in time, or at least a majority of the Congress, there may have been majority of Republicans.” 

“Why are they so hepped up on the FBI? Because the FBI … are considering allegations of wrongdoing by the former President of the United States who I think committed treason.” 

“Now he hasn't been indicted on that. I think when he invited a mob to Washington, when he incited the mob in front of the White House, and when he deployed the mob to the Capitol of the United States, telling them, ‘Go down there, stop the steal, and fight like hell.’ Those were his words, and they did just that.”  

“So it is ironic that a party that supports an individual who did that would be talking about how it's the party of law and order as it tries to defund the principal, federal law enforcement office…”

On the Response to the Selection
“…I think the majority of the Virginia delegation would like to have gotten the FBI, but they're not angry and they understand the criteria there and they understand the efforts.” 

“Let me give you a thought, by the way. They're complaining about the selection authority, the individual who made the decision ‘overruling’ the advisory panel. But they didn't complain in 2014 when the advisory panel made a unanimous recommendation to the authority, the siting authority, that the Virginia site should be excluded because they did not think it met the criteria and did not think it was appropriate for the FBI building.”  

“And the authority at that point in time in 2014, decided — no, that's not right, we're going to include the Springfield site. They didn't complain then. Now they're complaining because this siting authority, in this case, did not agree with the panel. So, I guess what's good for the goose is good for the gander.” 

“I think, I understand they're disappointed. I understand them calling for somehow to relook at this. I think all the I's were dotted and all the T's were crossed. I don't think that — this is a lot of sound and noise, but I don't think it's going to result in any change.”

“I think the decision has been made. FBI is going to Prince George’s County, state of Maryland, and we're going to build them the best darn building that they could possibly have. And I think when it's all said and done, they're going to be very pleased.”