Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks and an assemblage of Maryland leaders on Friday publicly questioned criteria for picking a new Federal Bureau of Investigations headquarters site that they said advantaged Virginia.
At issue is a plan the U.S. General Services Administration — the government agency tasked with deciding on the move — released in September that graded proximity to Quantico, Va., as its top priority and ranked promoting equity fourth out of five factors.
“This is an abrupt change that clearly favors Springfield [Va.] and puts our county at a disadvantage,” Alsobrooks said of the plan. “Why then, is the GSA suddenly changing the rules of the game in the 11th hour? Decisions like this one have major generational consequences.”
Prince George’s and Virginia leaders have sparred for more than a decade over the replacement for the FBI’s aging downtown D.C. headquarters and its potential economic impact. Northern Virginia has long benefited from a federal footprint that eclipses Prince George’s, a point Alsobrooks raised Friday and U.S. Congressman Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) echoed in argument for bringing the FBI headquarters to Springfield.
“Maryland is practicing the old trick: when you can’t compete, change the rules,” Connolly said in a statement to The Washington Post, adding that the federal government already owns and underuses the site, and that Northern Virginia is home to the FBI Academy at Marine Corps Base Quantico and the Central Records Complex in Winchester.
“Additionally, the Springfield site sits at the transportation nexus of Metro, VRE, I-495, I-95, and many major bus routes,” he added.
That imbalance is the point, Alsobrooks and other argued, noting that historic investment in counties like Fairfax have brought job opportunities and growth, while the median income for Prince George’s County is 48 percent lower than in Fairfax County.
“We have faced obstacles in attracting the same types of private investments that we see in jurisdictions like Fairfax County and Montgomery County,” she said. “Once again, it appears that some in the federal government are seeking to favor investing in the same communities that have historically received the majority of these investments for decades.”
Alsobrooks said the new criteria is not in keeping with an executive order President Biden issued promising to advance equity.
An FBI spokesperson said racial bias has no place in the site selection process for the new headquarters.
Agency leaders have been vocal in recent years about wanting to remain in D.C.
The Trump administration shelved long-standing efforts to move the headquarters to the suburbs, prompting Democrats in Congress to accuse the former president of derailing the move only to benefit his nearby hotel — a charge House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) raised on Friday in remarks supporting Alsobrooks and questioning the new criteria.
The GSA has five criteria with subsets. The FBI mission, including proximity to Quantico and the Department Justice, are under this umbrella. Access to transportation, flexibility of when construction could begin, racial equity promotion and cost round out the scoring considerations.
The FBI mission carries a weight of 35 percent while access to transportation brings 25 percent. Construction flexibility and racial equity promotion both hold a weight of 15 percent while cost is determined to be only 10 percent.
In response to questions, GSA spokesperson Channing Grate said “no single factor will drive the outcome of the site selection process.”
Prince George’s leaders have long argued that building in Landover or Greenbelt would be less costly than in Northern Virginia. As Connolly noted, the Springfield site is already owned by the federal government.
A decision date for site selection has not been made public.
Hoyer said the choice about where the headquarters will end up is one with “transformational” impact.
“I am certainly hopeful that the administration steps in to carry out its policies to make sure that when we make substantial investments, they uplift communities that have been ignored,” Hoyer said.