Rep. Jim Jordan again pushes Huntsville as best site for new FBI headquarters

Rep. Jim Jordan again pushes Huntsville as best site for new FBI headquarters

Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan is reviving his push to move the FBI’s headquarters to Alabama.

Just as he did in July, Jordan, R-Ohio, said on social media Tuesday that Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal is the ideal location. His post even sarcastically cited the fact that the gated Army post has an airfield that could accommodate FBI Director Christopher Wray’s “private jet.”

Jordan also briefly advocated for Huntsville during a House Judiciary hearing Tuesday concerning the selection of a site in Maryland earlier this month for the new headquarters. The Maryland site was selected over a site in Virginia – both in the Washington D.C. metro area.

“I don’t want it to go to either place frankly,” Jordan said. “If it goes anywhere, it should go to Huntsville where they already have all kinds of land, all kinds of space and all kinds of operations.”

In identical posts on Facebook and X, Jordan posted, “The FBI wants a new headquarters. Republicans shouldn’t give them a dime for it. In fact, they should move the FBI out of the Swamp entirely. Huntsville, Alabama would work. The FBI already considers it a second HQ and it has a landing strip for Wray’s private jet.”

And on the House Judiciary GOP account on X, a post Tuesday afternoon said, “The FBI’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama is the perfect place to house the bureau’s headquarters. Plenty of new facilities, save taxpayer dollars, out of the Swamp, runway for Wray’s private jet. Why not?” U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, whose north Alabama district includes Redstone Arsenal, reposted the post.

Jordan is chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

The debate over a site to replace the deteriorating J. Edgar Hoover Building, located on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and U.S. Capitol, has been ongoing for about a decade. The Washington Post reported last week that federal officials had chosen the site in Greenbelt, Md., for the headquarters.

Jordan has lobbied to move the headquarters out of the Washington area. In July, the Wall Street Journal reported Jordan believed that the FBI would be “less likely to be infected by what he sees as liberal politics.”

Jordan also mentioned Huntsville as an alternative site in a July letter to Rep. Kay Granger, chair of the House Appropriations Committee. The FBI, while The Post reported had concerns about the selection process for the headquarters, has said it wants to remain in the Washington area for logistical purposes.

While the $3 billion FBI campus at Redstone Arsenal has been described as a second headquarters with 19 of the bureau’s 26 divisions having a presence at Redstone Arsenal. Still, according to FBI descriptions of the Huntsville campus, it does not have the capacity to accommodate the HQ workforce in Washington.