70 Republicans vote with Dems to move forward with new $300 million FBI headquarters

Seventy House Republicans voted with Democrats on Thursday to move forward with funding for a new $300 million Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters to be built in Maryland.

On Wednesday, Republican Florida Representative Matt Gaetz introduced an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill that would block the funding from being used to build a new FBI headquarters.

“They want to spend more than $300 million on that complex. Though the FBI has an employee base that’s about 2.3% of the United States military,” Gaetz stated Wednesday ahead of the vote. “They are literally asking for something that is larger than the Pentagon.”

Gaetz argued that the FBI does not deserve a new headquarters, stating that the agency wrongly launched investigations into American citizens and attempted to entrap members of the U.S. Senate.

“They’ve also worked hard to censor factual information harmful to their preferred political candidates,” Gaetz continued. “Building a new headquarters would condone, reinforce, and enable the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ nefarious behavior.”

Republican Arkansas Representative Steve Womack argued that the FBI needed the funding to repair its current headquarters, build a new head office, or find an alternative solution. He noted that after touring the agency’s current base, he noticed the J. Edgar Hoover Building was in a “state of disrepair.”

“We’re not always going to hate the FBI,” Womack stated. “The fact is, the building is crumbling and there’s going to be a need to do something. What that something is, I’m not an expert on. But I think it would be wrong for us to be taking this action today pursuant to this amendment without having at least a hearing.”

Democratic Maryland Representative Steny Hoyer stated that the FBI’s current headquarters “is falling down.”

On Wednesday, 145 Republicans voted with Gaetz to block the FBI from using the funding for a new headquarters. The proposed amendment ultimately failed, with 273 voting against it.

Gaetz posted on X following the failed vote, “70 Republicans voted to reward the Weaponized FBI with a new $300M headquarters – larger than the Pentagon. Sad!”

Republican Georgia Representative Andrew Clyde, who voted in support of Gaetz’s amendment, wrote on X, “Unreal. During committee markup, 16 Republicans on House Appropriations also took down my amendment to rescind funds for the new FBI HQ.”

“What do we have to do to get Republicans to work together to hold the weaponized FBI accountable?” Clyde asked.

The U.S. General Services Administration issued a press release Thursday announcing the location selection for the new FBI campus.

The FBI headquarters is slated to be built on 61 acres in Greenbelt, Maryland. The GSA called the area the “best option” because it was “the lowest cost to taxpayers, provided the greatest transportation access to FBI employees and visitors, and gave the government the most certainty on project delivery schedule.”

“It also provided the highest potential to advance sustainability and equity,” the GSA stated.

FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed that the GSA’s site selection process could show some “potential conflicts of interest,” ABC News reported.

“In the course of our work with GSA, however, we identified concerns about a potential conflict of interest involving the site selection authority and whether changes that individual made in the final stage of the process adhered to the site selection criteria. Despite our engagement with GSA over the last two months on these issues, our concerns about the process remain unresolved,” Wray wrote in an email to FBI staff.

The GSA did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

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