Hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Barrasso, Hearing on FBI Headquarters Consolidation Project - What Happened and What's Next

Hearing

Good morning.

I call this hearing to order. I want to thank everyone for coming to be with us today.

We have convened this hearing to listen to testimony from Government witnesses from the General Services Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the General Accountability Office about the cancellation of the FBI Headquarters consolidation project and what comes next for housing the FBI.
The cancelled project would have replaced the current FBI Headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, located at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, with a new headquarters in either Maryland or Virginia.

The project involved an exchange of the J. Edgar Hoover Building to a private developer. The developer would then in turn construct a campus-like facility with proper safeguards for security, suitable for the FBI's new focus as more of an intelligence agency as opposed to simply a law enforcement one. The new facility would also consolidate the myriad of FBI satellite offices, which would make the Bureau more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.

I have no doubt that there is a need to replace the FBI's4 existing headquarters. The men and women of the FBI who keep us safe deserve an office building that meets their needs. The security and efficiency arguments for their case is clear. What is not clear is why the project was suddenly halted, why Congress was not notified in advance, and what happens now. Senators should not have to find out about a decision of this magnitude by reading about it in The Washington Post.

Regardless as to how this decision was made and how poorly it was rolled out, it is possible that the mechanics of this deal led to this eventual outcome. The exchange of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, which was at the heart of this proposal, may have been doomed from the start. According to the GSA Inspector General, only eight building exchanges of this type had ever been executed prior to the start of this project, and none of those exchanges involved a building worth more than $11 million. And while there is one significant exchange in the pipeline, it is not yet complete.

The exchange of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, a much larger building than any of the other completed projects, located in heart of the Nation's capital, on one of America's most famous streets, is in a completely different league. The questions now are: Where do we go from here and how do we find a solution?

The FBI needs a new headquarters. How do we get there and what do we do in the interim to address the FBI's needs? Does it make sense to pump millions of taxpayer dollars into the J. Edgar Hoover Building to upgrade it, only to tear the building down in a few years, especially since there is over $100 million in pending repair and maintenance needs in the building today?

Should the FBI pear back its many requirements for a new facility, reducing its size and scope to make it more affordable for the American taxpayer? Should we look at alternative financing mechanisms, such as a lease buyout arrangement where a developer constructs and leases a facility to the FBI, with the agency having the option to buy the facility years in the future?

These are all topics for this hearing today. I look forward to the testimony. I would now like to recognize Ranking Member Carper for his opening statement.

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