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June 20, 2013

Virginia lawmakers tell feds state is 'ideal' new home for FBI

BY: TAYLOR HOLLAND DECEMBER 5, 2012 | 5:07 PM
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Topics: Virginia

Six Virginia lawmakers have teamed up to convince the General Services Administration that Northern Virginia should be the next home of the FBI.

The bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday wrote to GSA Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini, urging him to consider Virginia "the ideal location" for the agency's new headquarters.

"Already, the FBI has a major training academy located on a 385-acre complex in Quantico, Virginia, making a headquarters location in Northern Virginia particularly convenient for intra-agency activities," wrote Reps. Jim Moran (D), Gerry Connolly (D), Frank Wolf (R) and Rob Wittman (R), as well as Sens. Jim Webb (D) and Mark Warner (D).

The letter comes as lawmakers in Virginia, Maryland and the District are competing to land the agency, and the nearly 12,000 employees and $8 billion annual budget it would bring with it. The FBI is now scattered in offices around the area, though most of its employees are at the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Northern Virginia officials are pushing for the FBI to move into a Fairfax County warehouse the federal government already owns, although Loudoun County may be interested as well. The Virginia lawmakers didn't endorse any particular site.

"Northern Virginia is home to a significant majority of the FBI workforce that will be directly impacted by this decision," the lawmakers wrote. "Clearly, a location in Northern Virginia would minimize adverse effects on these employees."

In Maryland, Prince George's County official have been readying a sales pitch of their own, although they have not publicly identified a particular site.

Lawmakers from both states say they expect to have proposals ready to show the GSA in the next few months.

tholland@washingtonexaminer.com

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Taylor Holland

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The Washington Examiner
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