Maryland to sue Trump administration after ditching plans to move FBI HQ to Greenbelt, reports say

Maryland is preparing for a courtroom fight against the Trump administration over the FBI s future home according to multiple outlets Related stories Senate panel takes major step to keep FBI headquarters in DC instead of moving to Md Can the Trump administration shift FBI HQ dollars from Greenbelt to Ronald Reagan Building Maryland pushes back on Trump s plans to scrap FBI s planned move to Greenbelt The Baltimore Sun first revealed that state authorities are planning to sue the Trump administration after it scrapped plans to move the bureau s headquarters to Greenbelt Maryland and opted instead to keep it in downtown D C The reversal pushed forward by a Senate committee last week has infuriated Maryland leaders who spent years lobbying for the project and now accuse Republicans of ignoring both process and measure concerns A press conference is scheduled for p m Thursday and can be watched online The Senate Committee on Habitat and Residents Works approved a plan to move the FBI to the Ronald Reagan Building in D C during last week s hearing Under that plan the General Services Administration would seek funding to transform the Reagan building instead of moving the headquarters to Maryland Keeping the headquarters in D C would reverse a previous decision by the GSA to relocate the FBI For a decade Maryland and Virginia lobbied for the chance to host the new headquarters as the GSA weighed several promising sites considering factors such as cost transportation access and proximity The GSA ultimately picked Greenbelt in sparking immediate pushback Greenbelt had seemingly won the battle until the Trump administration publicized a change in plans in July stating the headquarters would instead be moved a limited blocks away from their current D C home at the J Edgar Hoover Building Particular Maryland Democrats have criticized the congressional committee s decision to move ahead with plans for the D C headquarters last week citing concerns related to defense The committee s plans have not gotten congressional approval yet In a announcement Sen Angela Alsobrooks noted she had looked to add a provision to the resolution to require the Reagan Building could meet the highest safety requirement before the project would be funded But that idea was shot down The FBI made it abundantly clear at the start of this relocation process that their headquarters should be housed in a facility that meets the highest level of protection as designated by the ISC Alsobrooks wrote last week The location in Greenbelt Maryland meets those requirements as determined by a lengthy fair transparent process that Republicans have now overturned In a disappointing display of loyalty to this lawless President Republicans have decided that the FBI our nation s primary federal law enforcement agency does not warrant the highest level of safeguard WTOP has reached out to Alsobrooks office for comment In a comment last week Sen Chris Van Hollen of Maryland also expressed concerns about moving ahead with the proposal with no completed safeguard plan and an incomplete cost assessment Source