It just couldn't last, could it?
On the same day that House Republicans announced that they had issued subpoenas to several members of the Biden crime family, that same legislative body decided to be generous with the American taxpayers' money.
The General Services Administration has picked Maryland as the home of the new FBI headquarters, the agency confirmed Wednesday, after a lengthy and high-profile competition over where the new facility would be built.
The GSA most recently had narrowed down the search to three sites, two in Maryland and one in Virginia, and lawmakers and officials from both states aggressively pushed for the project, with jobs and economic benefits on the line.
An issue over the selection criteria even briefly delayed a sprawling $1.7 trillion fiscal 2023 omnibus spending bill in December 2022, which included $375 million to relocate FBI from a dilapidated building on Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest in Washington.
Yes, that would be the same FBI that has been focusing most of its energy on harassing conservative voters, pretending that we're all a bunch of raging domestic terrorists.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tried to get an amendment passed that would at least restrict the funding for the rogue agency's new digs, but 70 Republicans joined with the Democrats to kill it. As always, the rationale from the "Go Along to Get Along" wing of the GOP is ridiculous, especially this gem from Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas in Newsweek:
"We're not always gonna hate the FBI," he said. "I realize that there are people on my side of the aisle that don't like some of the activities of the FBI. I'm not gonna pick an argument on that. But what I will argue is that it is bad policy for the Congress to be taking steps to deny a federal agency that is in serious need, in my opinion, of an improvement in their headquarters."
Are you sure about that, congressman? The Bureau has been pretty busy sowing ill will all over the American Right. What many are experiencing isn't a lack of faith in current FBI management, but rather the institution itself. A shiny new place to work isn't going to cure all of that rot.
The real insult to financial injury here is that the money was given to the FBI to spend in a blue state. It's like the GOP is paying a dominatrix to humiliate it.
A lot of my conservative friends and colleagues like Stephen Green and Kevin Downey Jr. have been suggesting that, if Congress had to OK a new headquarters for the Bureau, it should have been moved to a red state in flyover country. Make HQ a remote field office assignment that feels more like exile and punishment than a prime upwardly mobile gig.
Nobody in Congress thinks outside the box like that.
Rep. Womack's delicate feelings aside, it's fitting that Christopher Wray and Company are working in rundown offices. Maybe the dilapidated surroundings will distract them a little from whatever they have planned for next year's presidential election.
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