Comer & Connolly Request GSA IG Investigate FBI Headquarters Site Selection Process

WASHINGTON—Today, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) called on General Services Administration (GSA) Acting Inspector General Robert Erickson to investigate potential political influence in the site selection process for the new Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters.

“GSA must be fair and transparent in its operations. Its real estate dealings should consider only what is best for taxpayers and the Nation. It must set aside political or parochial interests. We are deeply concerned that GSA’s choice of a new FBI headquarters site departed from those principles—and in doing so, failed to put taxpayers and the public interest first,” wrote the lawmakers.

On November 9, 2023, GSA announced it selected Greenbelt, Maryland as the new site of FBI headquarters. GSA initially set out criteria for assessing potential sites and a process for selecting among them but changed the rules and criteria toward the end the selection process. Nina Albert, a political appointee at GSA, overturned the unanimous site decision of an expert panel of civil servants. FBI Director Christopher Wray recently raised concerns about potential conflict of interest, fairness, and transparency in the process. At a recent Oversight Committee hearing on GSA, Chairman Comer and Representative Connolly pledged to work on this issue in a bipartisan manner.

“GSA initially set out criteria for assessing potential sites, and a process for selecting among them. But it changed the rules in the middle of the game. The criteria were changed. The selection process itself was changed. Most disturbingly, a new umpire — a political appointee — was inserted in the final inning. That individual, Nina Albert, the Commissioner of the Public Building Service at GSA, overturned the consensus site decision of an expert panel of civil servants representing GSA and its agency client, the FBI,” continued the lawmakers.

Read the letter to GSA Acting Inspector General Erickson here.