Maryland is preparing for a courtroom fight against the Trump administration over the FBI’s future home, according to multiple outlets.
The Baltimore Sun first reported that state officials 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 security concerns.
A press conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday and can be watched online.
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public 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 potential sites, considering factors such as cost, transportation access and proximity. The GSA ultimately picked Greenbelt in 2023, sparking immediate pushback.
Greenbelt had seemingly won the battle until the Trump administration announced a change in plans in July, stating the headquarters would instead be moved a few blocks away from their current D.C. home at the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
Some 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 security. The committee’s plans have not gotten congressional approval yet.
In a statement, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said she had looked to add a provision to the resolution to require the Reagan Building could meet the highest security 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 security.”
WTOP has reached out to Alsobrooks’ office for comment.
In a statement last week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, also expressed concerns about moving ahead with the proposal with “no completed security plan, and an incomplete cost assessment.”
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