Jim Jordan discusses agency director over controversial new FBI location

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan pressed General Services Administration (GSA) Director Robin Carnahan on the location chosen for the FBI’s new headquarters during a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

said FBI Director Chris Wray concern Last week, Nina Albert, a senior GSA official, had a “conflict of interest” in her decision to move the FBI’s new headquarters to Greenbelt, Maryland, rather than Springfield, Virginia, which several lawmakers felt it was more qualified location. Jordan asked Carnahan for details on that decision while stressing his position that the FBI should not get a new location, rather than accusations that it had been politically weaponized against conservatives. during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday.

“[Wray] he didn’t just say there was trouble, he said you weren’t following your own rules,” Jordan began. “You’re saying that’s not true?”

“Our general counsel found that we followed all the rules,” Carnahan told Jordan.

“What do you say? You’re the boss,” Jordan shot back.

I WILL SEE:

Carnahan agreed with his general counsel’s conclusions. Jordan began asking a separate question before noting that he didn’t think the FBI should be given a new location.

“I don’t want it to go anywhere (referring to Springfield and Greenbelt). I don’t think we should reward the FBI with a [new location] – the same FBI that said pro-life Catholics were extremists, the same FBI that retaliated against whistleblowers, the same FBI that censored Americans…but I’m worried [the GSA’s] process,” Jordan said.

Jordan returned to questions about Albert, who overruled a three-person panel advocating for the FBI’s new headquarters to be in Virginia. Albert previously worked for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA), which owns the Greenbelt land, giving him “a direct affiliation with one of the parties to this procurement,” according to Wray.

“I may be wrong, but a three-person panel looked at all of this and made a decision, and then that was overturned by Ms. Albert, who had been at GSA for two years, [then] he left before you guys made the decision public,” Jordan said.

“GSA’s normal process, when it makes site selections, is to have a panel make some recommendations … then we have the agency’s senior real estate professional make a final decision,” Carnahan said. “Actually, sometimes these decisions are different. The interesting thing is that . . .”

“How often have they been different?” Jordan said.

“When I’m going to tell you the most relevant moment that happened,” Carnahan replied.

“No, that’s not what I asked. I asked how often does this happen,” Jordan said.

Carnahan responded at the time that the most significant time a site selection decision has been overturned was in the selection of the new location for the FBI headquarters, which was reversed twice since 2014 .Jordan reiterated that this was not his original question and requested an investigation into the GSA selection process.

“That still begs the question that I’m asking. So it’s happened to you twice on the same project, how often does it happen anywhere else? That’s an important answer for us,” Jordan said. “An inspector general investigation is exactly what is needed to get to the bottom of this.”

“And if we see that this almost never happens, but it happened twice with FBI headquarters, holy cow, that tells us something in itself,” Jordan said.

The GSA did not immediately respond to a query about how many times a panel’s recommendation for site selection has been overturned by the agency’s senior real estate professional.

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