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Federal government cancels costly, decade-long search for a new FBI headquarters

K

KSweeley

Member
Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-local%2Bnational&wpmk=1

July 10, 2017

The federal government is canceling the search for a new FBI headquarters, according to officials familiar with the decision, putting a more than decade-long search by the bureau to move out of the crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building back at square one.

The decision follows years of failed attempts by federal officials to convince Congress to fully back a plan for a campus in the Washington suburbs paid for by trading away the Hoover Building to a real estate developer and putting up nearly $2 billion in taxpayer funds to cover the remaining cost.

Officials from the General Services Administration, which handles federal real estate, plan to announce the cancellation in a phone call with bidders and meetings on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the decision before it was announced.

In the meantime, the FBI headquarters is crumbling. On a rare tour of the building in 2015, bureau officials pointed to cracked concrete, makeshift work stations in former storage areas and badly dated building systems. The officials said the structure is now so inefficient that it has begun to hinder the agency’s modern mission, one increasingly focused on combating international terrorist threats and cyber crime.

They are also increasingly concerned that the Hoover Building could be susceptible to attacks.

“Having a state-of-the-art facility that meets that mission is paramount,” said Richard L. Haley II, FBI assistant director and chief financial officer, in an interview in 2015. “Security concerns are important. And you just have to open up the public records to see where you know bad things can happen if you don’t have the right security precautions.”
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A

akira28

Member
lol, because they were about to put it in majority black PG county and certain people said "helllllll no. that's way too much money going into that municipality."
 
D

DrSlek

Member
So they've been looking for a suitable building for 10 years?

Why not just build one? It would have been finished by now.
 
A

akira28

Member
WedgeX said:
They never should have tried to move out of D.C. in the first place.
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They've been in that building for a long time. They would have moved a 20 minute drive to the east on land that is already federally owned, and able to build at a discount. Or they could have negotiated further to try to get space down in Virginia, or further upstate in Montgomery County at extra cost.

they probably would have turned the old building into a museum/mall/restaurant or something.
 
T

tokkun

Member
Reminds me of the sort of arguments I would come up with to get my mom to upgrade my PC when I was in high school.

"Modern homework is so advanced these days that without a new graphics card and monitor, I don't know how I'll keep up"
 
W

WedgeX

Banned
Gallbaro said:
Why not? As a non-political organization would they not be better served outside of DC?
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It's the seat of the federal government. All of its workers are already situated here. Plus the federal government owns more than enough office space in the city, including the empty space at St. Elizabeth's, to continue to house them.

akira28 said:
They've been in that building for a long time. They would have moved a 20 minute drive to the east on land that is already federally owned, and able to build at a discount. Or they could have negotiated further to try to get space down in Virginia, or further upstate in Montgomery County at extra cost.

they probably would have turned the old building into a museum/mall/restaurant or something.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the St. E's space hasn't been under consideration for some time now. Bewilderingly, if they really just didn't want to be downtown any more.
 
A

akira28

Member
Bruce Springsteen said:
What does Trump have to do with what I'm saying or are you just trolling for a reaction?
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well he can't govern, and the people he selects as department heads are headasses?

WedgeX said:
Unfortunately the St. E's space hasn't been under consideration for some time now. Bewilderingly, if they really just didn't want to be downtown any more.
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well I'm actually talking about the Landover, MD space. St. E's is slated for other possible stuff. Also hampered by politics. A few other federal buildings have opened in the same county over the past 15 yrs.

Gallbaro said:
Move to Detroit!

It is not like they do not have massive branch offices across the US.
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I don't really see them leaving the Washington Area. Chiefly for political reasons. Remind the rest of government the law is still around, etc.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Bruce Springsteen said:
If this isn’t an example of government inefficiency than I don’t know what is
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I realize this partially proves your point but I do remember reading an essay about how government is INCREDIBLY efficient at some infrastructure and scale projects than private industry.

But it's very poor at bureaucracy, no doubt. Also tends to lag on tech.
 
R

Renji_11

Member
Lol people around here are not going to be happy this would of bring lots of revenue to whatever location got chosen. This will probably just be put on hold until the next President is elected. I think Greenbelt location was probably the better choice with Springfield being second. Springfield would probably be the better choice if traffic didn't suck so much there being so close to Quantico.
 
V

VendettaRed07

Member
The only example of government waste is congress not giving them the funding or approving of their plan. Because congress doesn't spend a fucking dime building anything

This isn't an example of Trump finally shutting down waste fraud and abuse. It's an example of him being petty and saying to the FBI "stay in your rotting shit house" because he thinks they have it in for him.
 
A

akira28

Member
Bruce Springsteen said:
You're right, that damn Trump has been suffocating the FBI from doing their job for the last 10+ years
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la de dah. you have to realize the expectation was to hand this over to either a Democrat or a moderate, government friendly Republican, (who have historically been friendly with the FBI specifically, you know the ones protecting America from terrorism the last 15+ years?). It takes time to vet sites, and they were down to 3 final choices, having whittled down from possible sites all over the United States since the Bush Admin.

I'm sure no one expected, not in 2006, not in 2008, not in 2016 that there would be an executive that is hostile to the federal government even running, hasn't appointed the needed cabinet heads and department executives to enable the different agencies to continue doing their jobs beyond the guidelines of the last directors. So, no I didn't say Trump himself slow walked the folder from desk A to file 13, but he has clearly made it difficult for agencies to make decisions in situations like this when they have to be "the government" and not "Trump's board room" waiting for his direct influence.

Trump neglected to select a new head for the GSA? So now GSA/FBI can't pick the new FBI HQ, even after working at it for 10+ years, and getting down to their final decision. They have to start all over again. Maybe in 2027...

you didn't really deserve a response that clear, but there you have it.
 
M

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
WedgeX said:
It's the seat of the federal government. All of its workers are already situated here. Plus the federal government owns more than enough office space in the city, including the empty space at St. Elizabeth's, to continue to house them.


Unfortunately the St. E's space hasn't been under consideration for some time now. Bewilderingly, if they really just didn't want to be downtown any more.
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The Pentagon isn't in DC. The CIA isn't in DC. Why would the FBI need to be there but not those other headquarters?
 
W

WedgeX

Banned
MetatronM said:
The Pentagon isn't in DC. The CIA isn't in DC. Why would the FBI need to be there but not those other headquarters?
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Honestly both ought to be in DC. We don't have voting rights in DC solely because of our status as the seat of government. Reducing the amount of federal government presence in the district without giving us the right to elect representatives is pretty insulting.
 
A

Aurongel

Member
VendettaRed07 said:
The only example of government waste is congress not giving them the funding or approving of their plan. Because congress doesn't spend a fucking dime building anything

This isn't an example of Trump finally shutting down waste fraud and abuse. It's an example of him being petty and saying to the FBI "stay in your rotting shit house" because he thinks they have it in for him.
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According to the article, this happened throughout both of Obamas two terms.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
What a fucking embarrassment. Five bucks when there's an accident and people die, congress is going to blame not-Hillary instead of their own dumb asses for not funding the move.
WedgeX said:
Honestly both ought to be in DC. We don't have voting rights in DC solely because of our status as the seat of government. Reducing the amount of federal government presence in the district without giving us the right to elect representatives is pretty insulting.
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Putting the most important military and intelligence sites, along with the seat of our government all in a hundred square mile city is a bad idea for a wide multitude of reasons.

The Pentagon and CIA aren't outside of DC for shits and giggles.
 
C

conpfreak

Member
Yikes. PG County had several developments around the Greenbelt site planned, with a lot of the homes already built based on the high likelihood that they would choose that site. Those home values must be have dropped $50k+ when this announcement dropped.
 
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