Hoyer Remarks at Rules Committee Hearing in Support of Amendment Regarding the FBI Headquarters
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05), Ranking Member of the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered remarks at a U.S. House Committee on Rules hearing in support of an amendment to the FY 2026 FSGG Appropriations bill that would ensure the General Services Administration (GSA), in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), submits a contracted and completed architectural and engineering plan for the Ronald Reagan building and ensure any future FBI Headquarters meets the highest security tier for federal buildings. Below are a video and transcript of his remarks:
Click here to watch a full video of his remarks.
“Madam Chair, thank you very, very much. I do feel strongly about the Appropriations Committee, on which I've served since January of 1983 – with 20 years off to be either the Majority Leader or Minority Whip. Distinguished Members of the committee, I think this amendment speaks to much of what this discussion has been about in terms of accountability, oversight, and making proper fiscally sound decisions. I want to thank you for this opportunity to testify on an amendment that I've submitted to the committee.
“For nearly two decades, I've worked – since 2009, to be specific – to move the FBI out of the dilapidated J. Edgar Hoover building and into a new consolidated facility that meets the bureau's operational and security needs. The Reagan Building, where this administration plans on moving the FBI, in my view, does not satisfy that objective. The building is highly exposed [to] 14th Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, you all know that they are very, very busy through ways, exposing it to a major pedestrian thoroughfare as well. There's also a passageway connecting the building to the Federal Triangle Metro station. The Metro, I believe, runs underneath it. Critically, the Reagan Building was designed as an easily accessible – I was on the committee when we did the Reagan building – private, public facility open to the public. Big cafeteria, big parking for the public, and an atrium that is very large. Some of you have been in it for banquets or such things. It was built before 1995. Now, the reason I mentioned 1995 is because we had a tragic event in a federal building. The federal building was called the Murrah Building. (Holds up photo) The Murrah Building was bombed by a single individual in a van in Oklahoma City. I've got copies of this for the entire committee, Madam Chair. And 338 people were killed, 1800 people were injured, and hundreds of billions – not billions – hundreds of buildings were damaged in the residual conflagration that occurred.
“The Director of the FBI came to me – I was then the Majority Leader, this was 2009 – and said to me, ‘We've got to have a new building. The building’s falling down.’ There is no disagreement. The building was falling down in 2009. We're now 17 years later. The building needs to be torn down and replaced, sold, perhaps, to the private sector. The Director of the FBI said we need to meet security standards. We cannot be on a street where a bomb can go off and devastate our people. The Congress has provided that the Interagency Security Committee Facility Security Level Five standards be applied in this case. My amendment would require the FBI and GSA – the CJS bill that we passed covers the CJS, the bill that I, the Ranking Member of Financial Services, covers GSA. GSA will actually build or rebuild, or refashion the Reagan building, if, in fact, that occurs. What this amendment says [is] to submit to the Appropriations Committee an architectural and engineering plan that can resolve the Reagan Building's security deficiencies, which everybody agrees, including, Madam Chair, the Four Corners of the Financial Services Committee in the Senate and in the House. I don't believe that anybody has given me a reason substantively why this amendment is not appropriate. Any classified portions of that plan would be submitted through the classified annex. So, there may be classified parts of it. The CJS bill, which passed the House with strong bipartisan support – 375 to 47, and the final passage of 392 to 28 – had this language in it. The language that I'm asking you to adopt for the Financial Services bill that deals with GSA is the same in the CJS bill dealing with the FBI.
“This is simple due diligence, Madam Chair, I believe. Congress has already appropriated about $850 million to develop the site GSA selected, which happens to be in Greenbelt. Not in my district, but in Maryland. Clearly, we have a responsibility not to waste the taxpayers' money on a 28-year-old building. Now, the FBI building is about 50 years old, but [a] 28-year-old building that can accommodate the FBI. Most importantly, we have a responsibility to provide for the safety of the brave men and women of the FBI who will be serving in the future in any such building. None of us wants to see a repeat of the Oklahoma bombing. The decision to move to the FBI building would make that horrific prospect, in my opinion, more, not less likely. We must do everything we can to ensure the FBI gets the facility it needs to perform its vital law enforcement and national security mission. (Holds up another photo) I'm giving this packet to you.
“First of all, let me say six of the seven security agencies are located outside D.C. Why? Because you cannot get the setback of 150ft that the security all around requires, and the campus type thing. So, the NSA, the two [buildings] are located on military bases, which are secure in and of themselves, the DIA and NSA. The National Geospatial [Intelligence Agency] is at Fort Belvoir, National Reconnaissance [is] in Chantilly, Virginia, in a site, as you can see from the pictures, I show you that. And then I show you the site that the GSA selected. (Begins to point at different parts of the photograph) It is a site with a parking lot on it and wetlands on it over here, and Metro here, which Congress required proximity for the FBI employees or any employees. I'll show you that as well. That's the site that GSA selected. Again, it's in Maryland. The other five of those six are in Virginia. So, Madam Chair, I believe this is not a partisan [issue]. It simply says in the amendment, and I quote, ‘No money will be spent until the contracted and completed architectural engineering plan for the Federal Bureau of Investigation new headquarters building for review to the Appropriations Committee. Any classified portion of the architectural engineering plan should be submitted through a classified briefing.’ So – I'll stop (laughs).