Prince George’s County Receives Positive News In Hopes To Be The New Headquarters For The FBI

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks

By Angela Alsobrooks // Prince George’s County Executive

As you may recall, we are in the final stages of a long process to select a new location for the new FBI headquarters, a decision that will affect the future of our entire County. On Friday, July 14, the General Services Administration (GSA) released an updated site selection plan for the new FBI headquarters, following meetings that we attended with the GSA and the FBI in March of this year.

While there is much more work to do, I’m pleased to be moving toward closure in a more fair way after the GSA’s recent announcement. I’ve enjoyed working collaboratively on this team effort. Congressman Steny Hoyer has led this issue for more than a decade, along with Senator Ben Cardin, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and other federal, State, and local partners. Securing the FBI headquarters is a generational opportunity for Prince Georgians and all Marylanders, and I will continue to fight fiercely to bring this home.

There are three sites as finalists, two of which are in Prince George’s, in Greenbelt and Landover. The third site under consideration is in Springfield, Virginia, in Fairfax County. The future location of the FBI headquarters has the potential to help transform our County and our State, just as other large federal employers have helped transform jurisdictions across the National Capital Region.

Following the GSA’s recent announcement, the two sites in Prince George’s County remain the best option for a new FBI headquarters. We meet the requirements laid out by the GSA, including cost, access to transit, and environmental impact. In addition, our sites have the added benefit of helping to rebalance federal jobs across the national capital region—a major, measurable way to promote equity consistent with the president’s executive orders, and the goals of the federal agencies themselves.

One of the major changes to the GSA’s site selection plan involves the weighting of equity in the criteria. Now, equity is weighted at 20%, as compared to 15% in the previous plan that was updated last September. Equity is critical to this process because federal job centers have driven job and income growth in our region, and decisions about where to locate them have historically advantaged majority communities over minority communities like ours. The effects of these disparities are clear. From fiscal year 2008 to 2023, Prince George’s County received over $121 billion dollars in federal spending. Fairfax County received over $460 billion.

Now, our educational attainment is lower, our median household income is lower, our gross domestic product is lower, and our poverty rate is higher than our neighbors across the Potomac. This is what inequity looks like. We may have the largest, most prosperous community of color in the nation, but compared to the rest of the Washington Metropolitan Area, we’re at the back of the line. Locating the FBI headquarters in Prince George’s would help further the Biden Administration’s goal to steer federal investments to areas like our County that have traditionally missed out on these opportunities in the past.

Another major change to the GSA’s site selection plan involves the weighting of cost in the criteria. Now, cost is weighted at 20%, as compared to 10% in the previous plan. The construction of the new headquarters is estimated to cost between $3 and $4 billion, and the site selected should represent the most cost-effective option for American taxpayers so we can be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

The Prince George’s sites are the most shovel ready and have the least number of obstacles to begin construction quickly. Meanwhile, the site in Springfield currently has tenants that would need to be relocated if that site is selected. Relocating these existing tenants would cost hundreds of millions of additional dollars for the project and would result in at least an estimated three-to-five-year delay in constructing the new FBI headquarters. We believe both our sites represent the best deal for American taxpayers.

The decision about the future location of the FBI is one that will have generational consequences for our region. When the Federal Government decided in 1941 to locate the Pentagon on the west bank of the Potomac, that decision created decades of additional investment in Virginia. Likewise, the Federal Government’s decision to locate the National Institutes of Health in Montgomery County conferred decades of economic benefits on Montgomery County.

Despite the disparity in federal investments our County has experienced over the years, we continue to rise. We are well prepared and well-equipped to be home to this agency, and we excel in virtually all of the criteria laid out by the GSA. We have the best access to a university-level pipeline of new workers, with expertise in cybersecurity and other skills useful to the FBI’s mission.

The GSA said it anticipates making a site selection in the coming months, and the best choice for the United States and the American people is obvious. I will continue working with our federal, State, and local partners to bring the FBI to its rightful home in Prince George’s County.