By Steve Neavling
A battle over the FBI’s future headquarters brought Senate funding talks to a halt Thursday night, after Sen. Chris Van Hollen blocked progress on a key appropriations package unless the bill included stricter security requirements for the new facility.
Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, objected to moving forward with a broader funding deal that included money for the FBI, Justice Department, NASA, and other agencies, Politico reports. He demanded language requiring the FBI to meet specific security standards for its headquarters, a push to force the bureau’s relocation to suburban Maryland, the site selected after a yearslong competition that the Trump administration reversed.
“That is a simple request that I would have thought all of us could stand behind,” Van Hollen said on the Senate floor. “Making sure that the new headquarters of the men and women of the FBI meets the security requirements that we and they have set out.”
Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican who chairs the relevant appropriations panel, rejected the request, warning it would derail a fragile funding process.
“I know of no path forward that would allow for the Van Hollen amendment to be adopted,” Moran said, choking up on the floor.
Van Hollen said he refused to let the bill move forward without a guarantee the language would be adopted, citing a previous attempt to restrict FBI funding to only the relocation site. That proposal was struck down in committee after Republicans threatened to sink the bill over its rebuke of President Trump.
“We did it because the president of the United States was going to throw a fit if that provision stayed on,” Van Hollen said. “And we shouldn’t make our decisions out of fear about what somebody in the White House is going to do, because that distorts the entire process.”
Moran’s proposal would have bundled four spending bills covering Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, military construction, Congress, and the FDA. Despite bipartisan support in committee, the package stalled amid the unresolved FBI headquarters dispute.
