By Steve Neavling
A bipartisan group of Virginia lawmakers is urging President Biden’s administration to halt the relocation of the FBI headquarters to Maryland while investigators are reviewing a potential conflict of interest.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) agreed last week to look into how the General Services Administration (GSA) selected Maryland as the new home of the headquarters.
In a letter to bureau staff, FBI Director Christopher Wray raised “concerns about the fairness and transparency of the process and GSA’s failure to adhere to its own site selection plan.”
A three-member panel appointed by the GSA unanimously supported Springfield, Va., for the headquarter’s new home, but a senior executive within the agency effectively overturned the panel’s recommendation.
“It is vital that both GSA and the FBI fully cooperate and provide relevant information to the Inspector General’s review, and that they allow time and space for investigatory efforts to reach a thorough conclusion. We urge the Administration to pause efforts to advance this headquarters process, allowing for transparent and fair review,” the lawmakers wrote, according to The Hill.
Those who signed the letter were Sens. Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D), and Reps. Don Beyer (D), Gerry Connolly (D), Morgan Griffith (R), Jen Kiggans (R), Jennifer McClellan (D), Bobby Scott (D), Abigail Spanberger (D), Jennifer Wexton (D) and Rob Wittman (R).
