WASHINGTON—A federal inspector general found that a couple of the reasons cited for picking Greenbelt, Maryland, as the new FBI headquarters site were unjustified, according to a report released by the General Services Administration Monday.
The IG’s report stopped short of recommending a new site selection process, although U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia, charged that “GSA cooked the books.”
“GSA provided inaccurate information to guide the site selection process and we may never know the full extent of missteps,” he said.
Maryland officials, including Gov. Wes Moore, said in a joint statement that “nothing in this report disputes the GSA’s selection of Greenbelt as the future home of the FBI.”
It was unclear Tuesday whether the controversy will generate new efforts to contest the Greenbelt site.
Based on five criteria, a three-member panel from the GSA and the FBI evaluated GSA-compiled data to choose from three sites: Springfield, Virginia; Greenbelt, Maryland; and Landover, Maryland.
The GSA announced it chose Greenbelt as the new site for the FBI headquarters campus, which is currently in downtown Washington, in November 2023. The selection panel unanimously chose Springfield, but senior GSA official Nina Albert overruled that decision.
The inspector general’s report said that the GSA overestimated relocation costs for the Springfield, Virginia, site and failed to provide specific equity data, such as racial and socioeconomic factors, for each location. Instead, the agency presented county-level data, which showed a greater need for support in Prince George’s County than in Fairfax County.
The report dismissed conflict-of-interest concerns over Albert, who previously served as the vice president of real estate and parking at Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which owns the Greenbelt site.
The GSA and its officials also failed to properly maintain text messages related to the relocation, according to the report.
Albert’s government-issued phone was cleared of all data by the GSA as part of an automatic off-boarding procedure for employees leaving the agency. Some officials created federal records by discussing the relocation on their personal cell phone, but failed to report these records until they were asked by the agency, months after the statutory deadline had passed.
Responding to the IG’s report, then-GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan wrote in a letter dated six days before the end of the Biden administration that “while these findings are worth careful consideration, in my view none of them undermine the overall integrity of the process, the Site Selection Panel’s recommendation, or the Site Selection Authority’s (Albert’s) decision.”
Carnahan added that “all those involved did their best to recommend and ultimately select a site that would provide the best value for the FBI and the public.”
Capital News Service did not receive responses from the GSA, Virginia Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine or Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity about possible next steps.
The FBI’s press office wrote in an email that officials “don’t have any comment at this time.”
Greenbelt Mayor Emmett V. Jordan told Capital News Service that the city “remains the most cost-effective location for the FBI headquarters.” He also emphasized that Greenbelt adequately meets all the FBI’s security requirements and transportation accessibility needs.
With the site selection process already through many rounds of planning and vetting, Jordan said he hopes that “the GSA is able to move ahead to find a place, hopefully in Greenbelt, for the FBI,” especially with federal employees concerned about their jobs under the new administration.
The joint statement by Maryland officials, which also included Democratic Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen and Democratic Reps. Steny Hoyer and Glenn Ivey, said “the Greenbelt site continues to offer the lowest cost to the American taxpayer, the greatest transit accessibility and the most certain construction schedule.”