GOP senators appear to have deal to allow FBI to stay in DC

Senate Republicans believe they now have Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R) support to advance the annual appropriations bill funding the departments of Commerce and Justice, NASA and the FBI after FBI Director Kash Patel spoke to Murkowski for an hour about the Trump administration’s plans to keep the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The deal will allow Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) to resume the markup of the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026 on Thursday morning.

The spending bill hit a big snag last week after Murkowski voted for an amendment sponsored by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) to block the Trump administration from using funding to relocate the FBI’s headquarters, now located at 935 Pennsylvania Ave. in downtown Washington, to anywhere except Greenbelt, Md., the site recommended by the General Services Administration after a multiyear competition between Maryland and Virginia.

Murkowski had an hourlong conversation with Patel to go through all of her questions about how the Trump administration got to the decision to relocate the FBI headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building, which is a few blocks away from the White House, instead of Greenbelt.

Murkowski needed clarity to know the decision was not arbitrary, and to understand better what the process was that went into the announcement to keep the headquarters in D.C., according to a person familiar with the behind-the-scenes talks to revive the stalled Commerce and Justice spending bill.

The Appropriations Committee will meet Thursday morning to resume the markup on that bill and also mark up the Military, Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

A senator familiar with the talks said the Appropriations Committee’s plan is to “rewind the script” by resuming consideration of the Commerce and Justice spending bill as it was initially approved by the committee before the Van Hollen amendment was adopted.

Asked Wednesday afternoon if the controversy over the FBI’s headquarters is now “fixed,” Collins told The Hill: “I certainly hope so, but we’ll have to see.”