U.S. Representatives Jennifer Wexton, Don Beyer and Gerry Connolly (all D-VA) issued the following statement on extreme Republicans on the Appropriations Committee voting to advance legislation that strips funding for a new FBI headquarters building, a top priority for the Bureau to maintain efficient operations and readiness.

“The Virginia delegation has repeatedly opposed and condemned interference in the independent, agency-run effort to build a new FBI headquarters.

“We are finally near the end of a decade-long procurement process that will get the men and women of our nation’s premier law enforcement agency out of the crumbling Hoover Building. Now is not the time to play petty politics. Yet MAGA Republicans, led by Jim Jordan, are weaponizing the federal government to push an extremely partisan and unpopular agenda to ‘Defund the FBI.’

“Despite the extreme right’s total control of Speaker McCarthy and the House agenda, we are determined to continue fighting to deliver the resources the FBI needs to complete its headquarters relocation process. This includes defending the project from all political interference.”

The Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill, passed by the House Appropriations Committee today, included no funding for the FBI’s relocation to a new headquarters, as the House has previously directed to be undertaken “as expeditiously as possible.” Wexton, Beyer, and Connolly, alongside the rest of the Virginia delegation, have made a strong case for the final selection of the site in Springfield, Virginia, to be home to the new headquarters. Without funding for the relocation process in this year’s appropriations legislation, the future of the effort remains to be determined.