Maryland Senator leans hard on the security argument to oppose administration plan to relocate FBI HQ to federal triangle instead of Greenbelt. https://t.co/BjGSclyH9F
— TSB (@TweetingTSB) October 29, 2025
Maryland's Senator Van Hollen makes two points in his immediate response to today's approval of a prospectus for the relocation of the FBI HQ to the Reagan Building, one of which is laughable and the other of which is serious and heretofore ignored.
First, the laughable one. He calls the majority side's unilateral approval "wholly partisan." No kidding. As all adults know, every government decision is made for political reasons; there are no exceptions. And that's actually how it should be in a representative government. When Senate Democrats have had the whip hand they've used it, as they will again the next time they take the majority. But today, they are out of power. Vae Victis.
Now the serious point, which is one that Senator Hollen has made before: the Reagan Building will certainly fail to comply with the applicable physical security requirements for an FBI Headquarters building. He rightly calls this a failure to address "glaring security issues" and points out that this matter went unmentioned in today's prospectus.
Granted, his motive in making that objection is far from disinterested - billions in development money are at stake - however, he's performing a public service anyway a la Adam Smith's 'invisible hand.'
Out of gratitude for that, I'll do him a favor and point out that the Interagency Security Committee security standards he refers to were not "developed following the 9/11 attacks" but instead originated in 1995 after the Oklahoma City federal office building bombing. That's a common mistake, but a lazy one since you could look it up. Van Hollen's staffers are doing him a disservice.
My own unsolicited advice is to demo and rebuild the current FBI HQ on the same site. I won't elaborate on my reasons since I've aired them often enough before, and I'm sure I will again as the FBI relocation project creeps on for years to come.
To do your recommendation, wouldn't the FBI have a wait before they occupied the new structure? We all know what a waiting period is in D.C.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you teach, political science?
ReplyDeleteThe FBI would have to do the whole risk management process before occupying the new facility, and then periodically thereafter. They have to have a plan and a budget for implementing security countermeasures, plus a justification for any unmet standards, and get all that signed off by the senior official on the facility security committee. They know the process from having to do it for all their current facilities. But, given the high political visibility on this relocation, I doubt the usual rules will apply.
ReplyDeleteOn substitute teaching, my favorite field is history followed by economics. One of my sons teaches history, and he'd let me sub in his classroom - no kidding.
ReplyDelete