The administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) defended her agency’s decision to relocate the FBI’s headquarters to a site in Maryland.
GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan appeared before the House Oversight Committee on Nov. 15, answering questions from lawmakers about the FBI building and other government spending and fending off questions of potential misconduct in choosing the Maryland location.
The FBI’s headquarters are relocating from Washington to Greenbelt, Maryland, according to a Nov. 8 announcement by the GSA. After years of looking, the government agency will finally leave the aging J. Edgar Hoover Building in the heart of Washington, where it has been located since 1975.
“GSA determined Greenbelt to be the best site because it was the lowest cost to taxpayers, provided the greatest transportation access to FBI employees and visitors, and gave the government the most certainty on project delivery schedule,” a GSA spokesperson told multiple media outlets when announcing the decision.
Lawmakers on the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee had several concerns, starting with whether the FBI should be the subject of more federal spending and whether the decision to choose the Maryland site had anything to do with the fact that the person making the decision had been employed by the owner of the property.
During the hearing, Ms. Carnahan and the lawmakers discussed the changes in criteria that took place before the Maryland property was chosen and whom the GSA allowed to have the final say in the decision.
During his questioning, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) cited those changes, questioning why the GSA decided to “reduce the weight given to the site’s ability to enhance FBI’s mission effectiveness.”
Three properties were being considered for the new FBI headquarters, and a panel of three experts, two from the GSA and one from the FBI, unanimously chose a building site in Springfield, Virginia. However, in what Mr. Comer called an “eleventh-hour” change, political appointee Nina Albert overruled that recommendation.
“The decision-making process itself was altered. The GSA installed a political appointee who overruled the decision of a panel of career officials originally charged with making the selection,” Mr. Comer said, addressing Ms. Carnahan to recap the chain of events.
“She then promptly left the agency. [It] just doesn’t seem right. It’s now clear to me why these major changes were made in the 11th hour.”
Ms. Albert was appointed to the GSA by President Joe Biden, who named her the public buildings service commissioner in July 2021. Formerly, Ms. Albert was the vice president of real estate and parking at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Lawmakers noted that after Ms. Albert changed the criteria, she chose the property being sold by her former employer.
The political appointee stayed in her position for about two years, leaving the agency after the decision was made but before it became public. Ms. Albert is now serving as the acting deputy mayor for planning and economic development of Washington D.C.
When asked by panel members whether this potential conflict was a problem for the GSA, Ms. Carnahan said that when those concerns were brought to her agency, she referred it to legal counsel. According to the administrator, the attorneys “found no merit” in any of the claims of potential misconduct.
“I will tell you that we fully vetted Ms. Albert because we knew of her prior employment at [the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority],” Ms. Carnahan told the lawmakers.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore backed the GSA’s choice of Greenbelt, Maryland, as the new FBI headquarters over Springfield, Virginia, in a Nov. 9 interview just days before the hearing.
Mr. Moore said the GSA went through a “thorough deliberation process” before choosing the Greenbelt location, reiterating statements he made earlier in the week when the choice was revealed, during an interview with CNN.
“This has been an over-decade-long process that the GSA has conducted; it has been thorough, and it has been transparent,” the Maryland governor told CNN.
According to Mr. Moore, the new headquarters has met all of the GSA criteria except for its proximity to the FBI’s camp Quantico, which is located in Virginia. The building is expected to be constructed on a vacant 61-acre tract near the Greenbelt Metro station.
