“The purpose of this is to say ‘This is Prince George’s County!’” U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer told the News Review on Friday, November 4, gesturing to the array of leaders and politicians from across the county who had gathered at Greenbelt Metro station.
County Executive Angela Alsobrooks called the press conference to advocate for bringing the FBI headquarters to Prince George’s County. The line-up of powerful speakers included Alsobrooks, Hoyer, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Representatives Anthony Brown and Kweisi Mfume, Maryland State Senator Malcolm Augustine, Maryland Delegate Nick Charles, County Councilmember Mel Franklin and Glenn Ivey, who is currently running for Congress.
The recurrent messages on Friday were the injustice of the General Services Administration (GSA)’s 11th-hour changes to the criteria they will be using to select the site, and a rallying cry to consider equity. “The state is united,” said Hoyer.
“We are standing in a historically underutilized business zone right now,” said Alsobrooks. “The two sites in Prince George’s County remain the best option for a new FBI headquarters,” Alsobrooks asserted, referring to the potential Landover and Greenbelt sites. “Our sites have the added benefit of helping to rebalance federal jobs across the national capital region – a major, measurable way to promote equity, consistent with the President’s executive order and the goals of the federal agency themselves. That’s why we were surprised when on September 23, the GSA, after 10 years, announced their updated selection criteria for the new headquarters where advancing equity was ranked only fourth out of GSAs’ five criteria and an additional measure that weighs site proximity to Quantico Marine Corps Base was suddenly added and is now the number one criterion. This is an abrupt change that clearly favors Springfield and puts our county at a disadvantage.”
“Decisions like this one have major generational consequences,” argued Alsobrooks, pointing to the investments in Virginia following the decision to locate the Pentagon on the Virginia side of the Potomac, and economic investments and benefits in Montgomery County after the decision to locate the National Institutes of Health there. Median incomes are 48 percent lower in Prince George’s County than Fairfax County (where the Springfield site is located), Alsobrooks noted, and out of the largest 150 counties in the country, which include both Fairfax and Prince George’s, Fairfax ranks second in income and wealth growth while Prince George’s County ranks 142nd.
Maryland was set to win the game until the goalposts were moved, argued Mfume. Baltimore stands behind Prince George’s County as the best location for the FBI, he said. “Adding that Quantico piece, clearly there is somebody who wanted to weight this and change the goalposts in order to try to push things in that direction,” said Van Hollen. “Well, let me just say this,” he continued, “I know Prince George’s County is the best site on the old playing field and on the new playing field. I don’t care where the goalposts are, Prince George’s County is the best county for the FBI’s mission.”
Inequalities
Van Hollen made a compelling argument that considering proximity to other federal sites can only perpetuate historical inequities. “When you use that kind of factor all you’re doing is reinforcing all the earlier inequalities,” he argued. “When you say it’s got to be located next to Quantico or next to one of the other FBI agencies in Northern Virginia all you’re doing is saying all those past decisions that were weighted to Fairfax and help make Fairfax a county with much greater individual wealth than Prince George’s County, that we’re going to look at all those factors and say okay we’re going to keep reinforcing that inequity, so that’s why this is such a big deal,” explained Van Hollen.
Build-Ready
Other considerations that make Greenbelt the best choice, according to the speakers on Friday, are that the site is build-ready, rather than requiring demolition, and no other site has a similar proximity to a Metro station. Hoyer shared photographs of the Springfield site after the press conference. “Looks expensive,” commented Greenbelt Mayor Emmett Jordan. In fact, relocation of federal agencies currently occupying the site would need to occur before the FBI facility could be developed.
Speaking to the Greenbelt News Review after the conference Jordan said he had been shocked by the GSA’s changes to their criteria. “It’s outrageous,” he said. “I’ll say it again, we have the capacity. We can accommodate from here,” said Jordan, pointing out that they are currently using the area by the metro station that would be the site of the headquarters as a construction staging ground; it’s the same area that was used as a mass vaccination site during the pandemic.
Benefit to Greenbelt
Jordan believes the headquarters would be a benefit to Greenbelt and that associated businesses would fill office spaces and bring revenue. He acknowledged that there wouldn’t be a tax benefit to bringing a federal agency, but he believes it will bring jobs to Greenbelt. “If they don’t come here, something else will be here,” he asserted.
The press conference on Friday was arranged on short notice, likely to show the strength and solidarity of the State of Maryland, and Prince George’s County in particular, ahead of the GSA’s decision, which is expected to come soon.
