Congress to demand inspector general probe decision to move FBI headquarters to Maryland

Senior lawmakers demanded Tuesday that an inspector general investigate the Biden administration’s decision to move the FBI’s headquarters to Maryland, saying the process was “contaminated” by political dealings.

The General Services Administration selected a site in Greenbelt, defying the recommendation of its panel of experts who said a site in Springfield, Virginia, made more sense.

Nina Albert, a political appointee who joined the GSA in 2021, made the final decision. Ms. Albert left the agency last month before the FBI location decision was publicly announced.

“I think you really risk damaging the credibility of the agency and its sense of fairness and lack of political interference in decision-making,” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia Democrat, said Tuesday during a hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

Mr. Connolly said he would partner with Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and committee chairman, to prod GSA’s inspector general to review the yearslong decision-making.

“This doesn’t seem right,” Mr. Comer said.

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray has complained about the decision, prompting GSA chief Robin Carnahan to ask her lawyers to review his objections. She said her general counsel dismissed the FBI’s complaints.

“They found those to be without merit,” Ms. Carnahan testified to the House Oversight Committee.

GSA had a decision scorecard that weighed which location had the better transportation network, which had the closest proximity to other FBI stakeholders, which was the lower cost and which best served ideas of “equity.”

Late in the process, the weights were rejiggered to diminish proximity and transportation, and enhance equity and cost.

Even then, Mr. Connolly said, the three-person panel of experts unanimously recommended Springfield. But Ms. Albert went with Maryland, and Ms. Carnahan accepted that decision.

Ms. Carnahan told the committee on Tuesday that Ms. Albert was the “senior real estate professional” at the agency, so hers was the final word. She said a panel of experts has been overruled before; indeed, it occurred nearly a decade ago in an earlier iteration of the FBI site selection.

The FBI site decision has been controversial for at least that long, with Maryland and Virginia vying for it.

Defenders of the Virginia site said the Greenbelt has the smallest buildable area for future expansion, has restrictive wetlands building restrictions and has the greater distance between itself and other FBI stakeholders.

The Greenbelt property also would have to be purchased from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority — better known as Metro. That happens to be where Ms. Albert worked before being appointed to her GSA post. She has since left to take a senior job in the District of Columbia’s government.

Maryland defenders said the Greenbelt site was deemed best for the FBI’s mission and for equity and promoting broader development in the metropolitan region.

Democrats blasted Republicans for prodding on the FBI matter during a congressional hearing, saying there were bigger issues in the country such as a looming government shutdown and Israel’s war with Hamas.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Florida Democrat, suggested it was a distraction cooked up by former President Donald Trump, who has been battling the FBI and the Justice Department.

“I wonder who has texted them and emailed them to talk about this FBI building,” Mr. Moskowitz said.

But it was tough to square that with Mr. Connolly, who was the most persistent questioner of the GSA’s decision on Tuesday.

Indeed, other Democrats pointed out the “bizarre bedfellows” created by the controversy.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat, said that in criticizing the GSA’s decision-making, Mr. Connolly was siding with Republicans like Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who opposes both the Maryland and Virginia sites and says the FBI should be banished to Huntsville, Alabama, as part of a full restructuring.

“I don’t think we should be rewarding the FBI,” Mr. Jordan said.