Plans for FBI in Greenbelt crippled as funds approved for DC headquarters

Ben Mause, The Baltimore Sun on Oct 29, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The future of an FBI headquarters in Maryland is increasingly bleak.

A prospectus to move the FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, D.C., was approved by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. It was approved along party lines over the objections of Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks and other Democrats.

The approval adds momentum to the Trump administration’s campaign to house the bureau just off the National Mall, ditching the Greenbelt site that was selected after a yearslong competition for the new headquarters.

“This is unprecedented,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks told The Baltimore Sun. “We went through a lengthy process. The [General Services Administration] made its decision. And, here we are today to change to a site that was never even” in consideration.

“There were three sites that were in the law that were eligible to be selected,” Alsobrooks added. “D.C. was never one of them.”

With the Senate’s approval, the GSA — essentially the landlord of the federal government — was given permission to seek appropriations to transform the Reagan building into FBI headquarters. However, the agency still needs approval from the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee before moving forward. The committee has yet to consider its corresponding resolution, according to a spokesperson.

“The funding is in the appropriations bills. It just needs to be assigned to the Reagan project,” committee Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, told The Sun. “We had no prospectus on the Greenbelt project last time. So it’s not like this is overriding something.”

“It makes sense to me,” Capito added. “It’s a lot less expensive, easier moving, more immediate.”

Recent estimates for constructing the Greenbelt headquarters totaled about $3.5 billion, Capito said. The cost of preparing the Reagan building for the FBI’s use is unknown.

Money for a new headquarters has already been set aside by Congress It was previously expected to go to the Greenbelt site. The site was selected in 2023, while Alsobrooks was Prince George’s County executive, after a 2022 bill required the GSA to choose one of three sites for the headquarters.

“In taking this unprecedented step to overrule the committee’s minority in this decision, Republicans are undermining the mission and safety of the men and women of the FBI and also setting a dangerous precedent for future committee decisions,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said in a statement. “They have become rubber stamps for a lawless president. They should be ashamed.”

While the possibility of an in-state headquarters isn’t dead, it is on life support. It will likely stay that way for some time. Alsobrooks mentioned a potential lawsuit to challenge the government’s real estate pivot, but a legal fight could take years. If the House approves its GSA prospectus — once the government reopens and the House returns to D.C. — federal funds will be available to begin transforming the Reagan building into the FBI’s new home.

The Greenbelt site has been under siege by the administration for months. It was selected for the future headquarters after a multi-year competition. But in March, President Donald Trump said that he didn’t want the headquarters to move to Maryland — “They were going to build it … in Maryland, a liberal state,” Trump said, adding that the state’s political lean had no bearing on his decision. He said it should remain near the Department of Justice.

In July, the FBI informed Van Hollen’s office that the administration had requested that funds set aside for the Greenbelt site be used for the Reagan building. The building housed the now-defunct United States Agency for International Development. GSA cited the cost of building a headquarters at the selected site.

Later that month, Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee blocked Van Hollen’s attempt to reserve $1.4 billion in spending for the Greenbelt site.

Alsobrooks and Van Hollen also questioned whether the Reagan building could meet the bureau’s preferred security requirements for a new headquarters, given its downtown location. The current headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, is also downtown. But in 2013, the bureau testified that it needed a Level Five security assessment for its new headquarters. Level five is the highest level of security that can be implemented.

Capito said she asked the bureau about security concerns and was told they could be addressed. But an official assessment hasn’t been conducted.

“The truth is that we know that this is not about what’s in the best interest of the FBI,” Alsobrooks said.

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