Around this time last year, President Biden talked about relocating the FBI headquarters to the suburbs from its current Pennsylvania Avenue location in DC. This past September, the GSA officially announced the new sight selection process for the new headquarters.
Currently, Maryland has two proposed locations for the FBI headquarters in PG county and Virginia has one Springfield location as a contender. The competition between Maryland and Virginia picked up this past week when the Maryland governor, lieutenant governor, Prince George’s County Executive, and Democrats in Congress all signed a letter for President Biden. The letter argues that the proposed Maryland locations “has the potential to be a shining example of the integrity of your executive orders” relating to racial equity and opportunities that he signed on his first day in office.
“The economic disparity between Prince George’s County and other jurisdictions in the National Capital Region did not materialize overnight. It is the result of a systemic imbalance in decision making over time about the sitting of federal offices….”
Virginia leaders countered the argument by saying that brining bringing federal facilities to Springfield is in line with the president’s stance on considering racial equity. Maryland then rebutted the augment by stating that stating diversity is not the same as equity, pointing out that Fairfax County overall is 64% white while Prince George’s is a majority-minority county.
During the heat of the rapid-fire between states, on March 9th, Maryland governor Wes Moore (D) challenged Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) to a game of basketball where the winner gets the new FBI HQ, and Gov Yongkin accepted with a reply tweet saying “game on!”
There is no official word as to whether or not a game would actually take place but it definitely lightened up the mood with a friendly Twitter exchange.
Game on! https://t.co/7lkZyB5Jmt pic.twitter.com/iIGyFoWWjA
— Governor Glenn Youngkin (@GovernorVA) March 9, 2023
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