Leaders pledge to bring FBI to Prince George's County
FBI headquarters relocation would bring 11,000 jobs to Maryland
WBAL-TV |
ANNAPOLIS, Md. —State leaders on both sides of the aisle unified their efforts Monday to bring thousands of jobs to Maryland.
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan met with Maryland's congressional delegation, sharing a wish list of 129 items. Topping that list is luring the FBI headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Maryland.
Maryland is competing with Virginia for the FBI headquarters and is willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to make it happen.
The first rule of real estate is location, location, location. Maryland is offering the FBI two sites in Prince George's County that meet all of its relocation criteria. One is the Greenbelt Metro site and the other is the old Landover Mall area.
"Any objective analysis of what Maryland has to offer in terms of cost, security, convenience, location (and) transportation options makes Maryland the obvious choice for the new FBI headquarters," Hogan said.
The governor and Maryland's members of Congress said they are united and focused in their efforts to lure the FBI to the state.
"Assets we have in this state (include) the National Security Agency, cybersecurity, Andrews Air Force Base, the University of Maryland, Metro," said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-District 5.
"We are also looking at a national security corridor. It would go from the National Security Agency into a new FBI headquarters," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland.
Forty-three percent of FBI employees live in Maryland. Moving the headquarters would bring 11,000 jobs to the state.
"The engineering estimate that we have right now for the FBI centered in Greenbelt would be a total investment of the state and local ... somewhere between $190 million and $210 million," Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn said.
Cost estimates were not available for the old Landover Mall area site.
Either Maryland site would also be large enough to handle consolidating the FBI.
"We made it clear that we wanted the full consolidation of the FBI. That's because of the critical mission in place to keep us safe," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland.
The federal Department of General Services is still in the process of going through its checklist on everything from education opportunities to environmental impact, and studies are also underway. Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker is already taking steps to prepare the sites.
"We are going ahead with permitting to make sure whatever site is chosen in Maryland, they can get started quickly," Baker said.
A final decision by federal officials on the FBI headquarters is expected to be made by the spring of 2016.